As the confirmation process for United State Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sadly continues down the path of examining his youth in light of allegations of sexual misconduct...with a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing scheduled for Thursday...I thought it might be interesting to go back in time to 1991 when Republican president George H.W. Bush's nominee, Clarence Thomas, after Anita Hill's accusations against him, was narrowly confirmed by the Senate body, 52-48. At that time the Democrats controlled the Senate, 57-43. It was a very different era, politically, with 11 Democrats crossing over to vote for Thomas's confirmation and 2 Republicans voting in opposition...imagine that sort of thing happening in today's extremely partisan setting...
Here are the senators crossing over in that vote:
DEMOCRATS VOTING FOR THOMAS
RICHARD SHELBY (Alabama)...later joined Republican Party
DENNIS DECONCINI (Arizona)
SAM NUNN (Georgia)
WYCHE FOWLER (Georgia)
ALAN DIXON (Illinois)
J. BENNETT JOHNSTON (Louisiana)
JOHN BREAUX (Louisiana)
JAMES EXON (Nevada)
DAVID BOREN (Oklahoma)
ERNEST HOLLINGS (South Carolina)
CHUCK ROBB (Virginia)
REPUBLICANS VOTING AGAINST THOMAS
BOB PACKWOOD (Oregon)
JIM JEFFORDS (Vermont)
Looking at the above list of Democrats voting for Clarence Thomas's confirmation, you'll note that six of the eleven senators are from Deep South states. Only Shelby was a staunch conservative and he himself switched parties later in the decade. The other five were moderate Democrats...back then southern voters weren't anywhere nearly as skewed to the political right as they now are...
By the way, back then in 1991 there were some familiar, much younger faces in the Senate for that vote: here's a list that includes currently sitting senators, two former vice-presidents, three presidential general election candidates, and a vice-presidential candidate..all of them voted along their party's line:
JOHN MCCAIN (Arizona)
JOE BIDEN (Delaware)
JOE LIEBERMANN (Connecticut)
CHUCK GRASSLEY (Iowa)
BOB DOLE (Kansas)
MITCH MCCONNELL (Kentucky)
JOHN KERRY (Massachusetts)
AL GORE (Tennessee)
ORRIN HATCH (Utah)
PATRICK LEAHY (Vermont)
I composed the above lists by referencing Wikipedia's page about Clarence Thomas. In looking at what's going on regarding Brett Kavanaugh, I have to sit back and allow the upcoming events to play themselves out before I can form a reasonable opinion. Of course, now there seem to be two other people in his past who might offer damaging testimony, although I wander whether Grassley, McConnell, and Company won't just quickly push for a final vote after Thursday's hearing...
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