Resurrection: The Confirmation of Clarence Thomas

Senator "Jack" Danforth is one of the most respected men in the U.S. Senate. When Clarence Thomas was nominated to the Supreme Court in 1991, Danforth gladly pledged himself to be Thomas's guide and sponsor through the customary rounds of informal interviews with key senators. A three-term senator from Missouri, Danforth believed that despite the political opposition, Thomas's hardwon rise from poverty, his integrity, and his personal record would win the Senate's confirmation. After days of arduous politicking and probing testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Danforth was sure he had the votes and that the Senate would confirm Thomas by a close but safe margin.
Then, when the committee's deliberations were shattered by Anita Hill's explosive charges of sexual harassment, Thomas felt - correctly - that his enemies' goals were now not just to defeat him but to destroy him. Danforth's hopeful confidence turned to bitterness as he watched his fellow senators back off their earlier support of Thomas's nomination and their stated admiration of his character.
In Resurrection, Danforth, an ordained minister, tells this story of inspiration and spiritual regeneration. It is a cautionary tale and an example of how one man and his loyal friends persevered when the world was against them and all seemed lost. But it is also the ultimate insider's own confession: Senator John C. Danforth's deeply personal revelation of how, in a good cause - that of winning a seat on the Court for his friend Clarence Thomas - he himself came very close to losing his own soul, in his anger and rage at Thomas's enemies and his willingness to do whatever it took to get Thomas confirmed.

Danforth, a Republican senator from Missouri and an ordained Episcopal priest, maintains that liberal law professor Anita Hill's charge of sexual harassment against conservative judge Clarence Thomas was a last-minute, politically motivated attempt to derail his nomination to the Supreme Court in 1991. The author, who led a campaign to win support for Thomas's confirmation in the Senate and attacked Hill in the media, presents a startling, behind-the-scenes look at the confirmation hearings. To substantiate his charge that Hill lacked veracity, Danforth sets forth evidence that she lied to the Senate Judiciary Committee about the circumstances surrounding her termination at a law firm, testimony that was apart from her relationship with Thomas. Danforth notes, however, that a challenge to her testimony was never made for procedural reasons. He describes Thomas during the confirmation process as a "lost soul," sobbing, writhing in agony on the floor, lying in bed in a fetal position, but ultimately pulling himself together through prayer, Bible reading and the support of friends and his wife Ginni. 50,000 first printing; author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A personal, insider's view of the confirmation process for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, from the justice's chief Senate sponsor. Missouri senator Danforth is an ordained Episcopal priest, and religious metaphors inform both this book's title and its tale of Thomas's eventual confirmation. Given that other authors have explored the context and politics of the Thomas hearings in greater depth, Danforth's account of day-to-day strategizing offers only a few interesting nuggets. Lawyers handling Thomas initially discounted Anita Hill's allegations of sexual harassment; Danforth backed up his longtime friend and former employee from the start, while Thomas told him--somewhat dubiously--that Hill was ``very ideological.'' When the allegations hit the media, Thomas was besieged. His wife, Ginni, is quoted recounting his anxiety and humiliation, and Danforth describes Thomas sobbing. The author relates his disputes with Senate Judiciary Chair Joseph Biden on handling the hearings and reflects that a longer delay might have allowed Thomas to retain counsel and gain procedural safeguards. He also recalls advising Thomas, who absolutely denied Hill's allegations, to say he'd agree to a lie detector test when Senate staffers were similarly tested about news leaks. Danforth shifted from minister to ``street fighter'' in an attempt to suggest that Hill was fantasizing and destroy her credibility; his own staffers, in fact, argued against some of his efforts, and Danforth himself now regrets playing dirty. The author's contention that the hearing procedures were unfair is worthy, but his account is necessarily slanted. Danforth avoids engaging Thomas's ideas: ``I did not think his political philosophy should be relevant to his nomination,'' he declares--which seems glib, given Thomas's show of hard-line conservatism as a justice. Strictly for the converted. (First printing of 50,000; author tour) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Danforth is the Missouri senator who shepherded Clarence Thomas through Senate confirmation of his appointment to the Supreme Court. A minister as well as an attorney, Danforth reflects his and Thomas' Christian faith often in his account of the ordeal that confirmation became. When the going got really tough--i.e., after Anita Hill's allegations of sexual harassment came out--Thomas kept his spirits up with Christian music, by reading the Bible, but most of all through prayer, both alone and with those closest to him, who several times included Danforth. According to Danforth, Thomas was essentially broken, anyway, and his reputation actually killed, which is why Danforth refers to Thomas' eventual victory as the beginning of a virtual resurrection that, given how anti-conservative propagandists have kept Hill's accusations current, is not over. Two aspects of Danforth's report are most striking: that Thomas always stoutly maintained he never said or did anything Hill could have construed as harassment, and that Danforth feels he himself behaved wrongly in some of his efforts to help Thomas. A very convincing testimony on one of the most controversial and contentious public events of recent years. (For those who wish to compare Danforth's account with the record of the confirmation hearings, Academy Chicago Publishers has just issued The Complete Transcripts of the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill Hearings [$22.50; 0-89733-408-6].) Ray Olson

In a book whose title suggests strong religious symbolism, Senator John Danforth (R-Mo.), who is also an ordained Episcopal priest, recounts the battle, both public and private, political and personal, that ensued over Clarence Thomas's nomination to the Supreme Court. Writing from the perspective of a personal friend as well as a political sponsor of Judge Thomas, Danforth details what he interpreted to be a well-orchestrated attempt to destroy Thomas's nomination and perhaps the man himself. According to Danforth, he himself was almost destroyed by his own angry response to Thomas's foes. This particular confirmation battle will be analyzed for decades to come, from numerous angles and with competing conclusions. At times moving, Danforth's insider account often reveals Danforth's rage and questionable tactics as much as anything else. His "spin" on the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill affair won't persuade everyone, but his honesty about his own behavior is refreshing. Danforth's work will appeal particularly to readers interested in the relationship between political behavior and religious faith. [See also The Complete Transcripts of the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill Hearings, reviewed above.-Ed.]-Stephen K. Shaw, Northwest Nazarene Coll., Nampa, Id.
--Stephen K. Shaw, Northwest Nazarene Coll., Nampa, Id.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.