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No Doubting Thomas

January 22, 2007 8:57 PM

My household spent much of the weekend in a high state of anxiety awaiting the Big Event, the day we’d all been waiting for, yet somehow never expected to see: the day the Chicago Bears would win the NFC championship. The only bad thing about the game (and I’m the only one in a houseful of rabid Bears fans with this view, btw) is that we ended the Saints’ magical run. But such is life. And football. And really, what is the difference? (And yes, my true loyalties are with the Crimson Tide, but living in Chicago seven years—and being married to a Chicagoan—has made me a Bears fan, too. (And really, growing up in Alabama, who ever cared about the Falcons, anyway?)

The game was actually a great distraction (and I apologize for saying that to the life-long Bears fans who know these games are much more than distractions), because it was the weekend before my book, Supreme Conflict, was to be released. The book is something I’ve been working on since the fall of 2004, when William Rehnquist announced his illness and Penguin contacted me about writing it. To say it’s been all consuming is an understatement, as anyone who’s written a book (or not heard from me in a while) will attest. As Bob Schieffer told me when I first signed on to do write it, it would be the hardest thing I’d ever done and I’d be prouder of it than anything I’d ever done. He was right on both counts, as he typically is in all matters.

It’s available tomorrow, and I hope those of you who are interested will pick up a copy. As you know if you’ve read this blog before, I focus in the book on the Rehnquist Court from 1994 to 2005, and analyze how that Court, with seven justices appointed by Republican presidents, became such a disappointment to conservatives. Were justices outright mistakes? Did they change? Did they affect each other in unexpected ways? Then I look at how those missteps influenced the Bush Administrations decisions on the nominations of Roberts, Miers and Alito, and I conclude that Bush succeeded where past Republican presidents had failed in changing the direction of the Court. I obviously hope you enjoy reading it—and learn as much about the Court and the justices as I did researching and writing it. I’ll spend the next couple weeks talking about it—what I learned, what I think it means—and I’d very much welcome your views.

Now, before we move to the law—remember, life, law and football?—a bit about life. Last night, I headed to New York in a blizzard that closed National Airport.

With all the chaos at National, I had to beg a very nice US Airways gate agent to let me on what I knew would be the last flight out, because I just had to be in NY for Good Morning America. Please! To talk about my book! With Robin! He graciously agreed, and I felt incredibly gratified, thinking I’d surely gotten the last seat on the entire aircraft…until I got on the plane and saw it was half full. I suppose most right-thinking people had taken the train.

I did sit next to a pilot who explained to me on the way up that one of the best aircraft to fly is a 757 because it’s fun to control. He was so enthused and earnest about it that I didn’t have the heart to tell him that from a passenger’s perspective, the plane is like sitting in those little chairs at my kids’ preschool. He also told me that Boeing is coming out with a “Dreamliner” that will pump humidity back into the plane, so everyone will feel refreshed and energized when they get off. That sounds great to me. Being from the South, I think humidity is fabulous. I also hope the Dreamliner serves ribs from Dreamland.

I had a terrific time on GMA. (That’s what television people, as I am learning call Good Morning America. “This Week” is what we call George’s show. “Face” is what we call Schieffer’s, and “Meet” is what we call Russert’s. I am still learning these things, but I have been told that by reliable sources who are helping me learn television.) Anyway, the great Robin Roberts interviewed me about the book, which was just the best possible way to start a book tour. Robin said she liked the book (fantastic, she said!), and she was so sincere when she said it that I actually believe her. I’ve been a huge fan of hers for years, and I think she’s just terrific on television (as she was on the basketball court). She also is a mutual friend of my buddy Mike Wilbon, who co-wrote a fascinating book (also published by Penguin) about race with Charles Barkley, who is, as we all know, from  Alabama.

And Barkley also is a friend of Clarence Thomas.

I mentioned to Robin after the interview that Barkley visits Thomas at the Court, since she’d asked me about the Thomas chapter in my book. It’s perhaps the most startling thing I discovered in doing my research—documentary proof of what everyone inside the Court knew: how independent and forceful Thomas was from Day One, and how he often convinced Scalia to change his vote, not the other way around.

I wrote an op-ed about that in today’s WSJ, and you’ll be able to see more about it tonight on Nightline and read a more extensive version of the story on our ABC News website by clicking here. We interviewed a former Thomas clerk, Helgi Walker, a former Scalia clerk, Noel Francisco, and Georgetown Law Professor Neal Katyal (a Breyer clerk, though his clerkship wasn’t why we wanted to talk to him) about the lingering stereotypes of Thomas. All three agreed there was a racial subtext to those stererotypes, as did the NAACP’s Julian Bond, who sat down with us in an exclusive interview to share his thoughts on Thomas—and his vehement opposition to Thomas’s views on the law.

Finally, when they had cleared the one-eighth inch of snow that had fallen over three hours or so (and I may be exaggerating a little here—maybe it was one-sixteenth—math is not my strong suit), we managed to take off. DC is nothing if not a southern town, as is obvious when shoppers clear out all the bread and milk at the grocery store when forecasters give even the slightest hint of snow.

January 22, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (2)

User Comments

Posted by: Mac | Jan 22, 2007 9:08:18 PM

Posted by: Funny | Jan 23, 2007 8:39:59 AM

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