5-09-07, 9:59 am

Supreme Court Justice vocal cords cut by space aliens, will be re-attached in time for affirmative action vote.
Somebody just wrote a book about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. No it's not 400 blank pages, but it's co-written by Kevin Merida and Michael A. Fletcher and much can be said about the timing of its release, only Thomas (rumored to be Black) won't say anything. In fact he hasn't uttered a word on his job for months now. Highly unlikely behavior from a brotha, guy shows up on time every day, doesn't say s—t. What's wrong with him?

The book 'Supreme Discomfort: The divided soul of Clarence Thomas' claims there is a reason for such behavior from George H.W. Bush's bizarre replacement for the then-retired Thurgood Marshall. No-doubt the late great Marshall has been turning over in his grave numerous times due to the antics of Thomas. Reviewer Kenji Yoshino says the book actually gives some examples of Thomas' life as a radical black-beret wearing student activist whose favorite author is Ayn Rand (But even then he voted a couple time against his leftist cohorts). It's what happened to Thomas between this period and his appointment as Black issues Bill-killer that many of us don't understand. But neither Merida, Fletch, Yoshino nor you and I were privy to the conversation between Thomas and then-President Bush (41) when he first tapped Thomas for the appointment in regards to what he expected from him. Now that would be the tell-all book worth reading.

But reportedly 'Supreme Discomfort' does go into the secrets of Thomas' habitual silent running during court proceedings: 'One conventional explanation is that Thomas is still smarting from the Anita Hill scandal that occupied his confirmation hearing… Merida and Fletcher explain his courtroom demeanor by suggesting that silence is the closest Thomas can come to opting out of the scripts that eddy around him. 'If you can't be free,' the poet Rita Dove writes, 'be a mystery.'' Mystery nothing, being seen and not heard is a slave's axiom. No oral arguments expected from Clarence the larynx. If George W. can continue his dad's war, then Justice Thomas can continue his master's war, on Black America.

Many people know Thomas is a constitutional fundamentalist, why make things more interesting with needless commentary. Much of his life speaks of redundancy; married to Virginia, living in Virginia (Fairfax ). An excerpt from the book ran in the Washington Post, discussed a black female columnist who wrote an essay on Thomas after which he contacted her. She had this to say, 'He's a lonely guy… I think he would clearly love his relationship with the black community to be different,' states Debra Dickerson. He can't possibly feel this way given the decisions he's made in that chamber. This isn't a case of how I or others expect all blacks to think the same, there are other roads to exhibit this. The SC cases on the docket pertain to the same rights he eagerly used.

--Chris Stevenson is a columnist for the Buffalo Criterion, Contact him at

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