The Other Anita Hill

...Q. Do you remember specifically—now I understand that you told us that there was this general environment of this, but do you remember any specific comments that Clarence Thomas made to you along these lines prior to this banquet...

...Her immediate supervisor told me that on several occasions she reversed his specific direction for action and that she was often argumentative, uncooperative and unresponsive...

...Amazingly, only one such person—Angela Wright—surfaced before the committee...

...She stated she treated Wright fairly and waited until she had no choice but to confront Wright concerning her unsatisfactory job performance...

...I was laying in the weeds waiting for Angela Wright to testify, just laying there," recalled Alan Simpson...

...Morris submitted the statement to the Judiciary Committee because he believed that Wright might do to Thomas what she had done to Semerad: The reason I am offering this statement is that I am struck by the startling parallels between what Ms...

...A. Somebody first called me...

...The entire process suggested a last ditch attempt to stop the advancement of someone she resented...

...I know he spent a lot of time trying to help her...

...The FBI file on the Thomas nomination recounted the following from an interview with Kate Semerad: Semerad advised that she received reports from coworkers that Wright was delinquent in the performance of her job...

...However, in an interview, Charles Ogletree of Harvard University, one of Hill's attorneys during the hearings, said that this was false...

...Semerad advised that Wright's immediate supervisor at AID was Thomas Blank, deputy assistant of external affairs...

...The result would be that Wright was no longer a factor in the outcome of the hearings...

...At the time of the hearings, therefore, little was known publicly about the Wright story after the initial flurry of headlines...

...According to Semerad, Wright's staff "complained that she did not give clear direction and was sometimes verbally abusive...

...Only Wright herself could have done that...

...THOMAS: That is the way I am with conduct like that, whether it is sex harassment or slurs or anything else...

...The faggot remark was just the precipitating event," said Pamela Talkin, Thomas's former chief-of-staff...

...A. He said that he had gotten information that I worked for Clarence Thomas...

...The reports of a second witness sent a shudder through the pro-Thomas camp, which feared that now that Hill's charge was in the public domain, it would be open season on Thomas for anyone with a motive to seek revenge against him...

...SIMPSON: And so that was the end of Ms...

...Very likely no such thought occurred to her until Hill's story broke in the press, because no grounds existed for a sexual harassment charge...

...Semerad stated she received information from Blank stating that Wright's management and writing skills were not satisfactory...

...A. Of Hill's allegations...

...Duggin said that to the best of her recollection, Wright told her she was fired because Wright had not made the proper preparations for a meeting that was to be attended by various commissioners...

...A. No...

...They may simply have wanted to protect themselves from public embarrassment if Wright testified...

...Duggin went on to describe the history of Wright's relations with Thomas, and how she had threatened to get even with Thomas as recently as two months before she made her statement...

...Ultimately, the Senate found the charge to have no merit, though the story does suggest Wright's modus operandi...

...Eight women made allegations against Adams, nine against Inouye, and more than a dozen against Packwood...

...News & World Report quoted Illinois Senator Paul Simon as saying that if senators had known more about Wright and an alleged corroborating witness for her, it "could have toppled Thomas...

...She said Wright would react without thinking...

...She stated that Wright would leave work early and take long lunch hours...

...THOMAS: As I indicated, Senator, I summarily dismissed her, and this is my recollection...

...Hill herself, who has taught in the area of civil rights law, stated at a press conference after her charges were leaked to the media, "One of the things that I will say about sexual harassment generally, and I suspect that it's true in this case too, in fact I've heard rumors to that effect, but I cannot substantiate any of those...

...Semerad stated she was aware of the applicant having difficulties on past employments she had held...

...Obviously I did not come forward with anything...

...Q. Okay...

...Duggin advised that Wright could be described as a "seductive-type person...

...The FBI, however, was dispatched to the field to interview friends and former employers of Wright's to assess her credibility...

...When Williams spoke with Wright in the summer of 1991, after Thomas was nominated to the court, Wright told him, "You know I'm still pissed at him for firing me, but I'm not going to do anything...

...A. No, I can only remember them in general...

...Q. I'm sorry, your opinion of what...

...Coworkers of Hardnett's during the period said she had never complained to anyone about the working environment in the agency...

...A. Yes . . . There were several comments he made...

...She said Wright isn't the type who would make a sexual harassment charge, she would "deck a person...

...I see the same pattern of behavior today in the case of Judge Thomas...

...And it became a very moral struggle with me at that point...

...SIMPSON...

...CI 31n addition to resurrecting and mischaracterizing Wright's charge against Thomas, the magazine also claimed that a third sexual harassment charge had been lodged against Thomas by Sukari Hardnett...

...I saw them every day...

...Her hostile responses and pointed refusal to make any charge against Thomas underscored the fact that Wright was an unwilling participant in the proceedings: Q. . . . Can you tell us why you chose to wait until now to come forward...

...In both cases, Senate staffers sought out the alleged victims as part of anti-Thomas dirt-digging expeditions, and solicited the stories...

...THOMAS: That was more than enough for me...

...On the morning Hill was to testify, a lead story in the New York Times reported: "Conflict Emerges Over A 2nd Witness: Thomas Panel To Hear Woman—White House Protests...

...In a March speech at Stanford University, NPR's Nina Totenberg said: Now there are some things that happened during those hearings that nobody knows about, and maybe in the next few months or years we will find out about the deals and counter-deals that were made, behind the scenes as those hearings ground on for twelve, fourteen, sixteen, twenty hours sometimes at a clip, but we do know a few things...

...The result only added to the sense among supporters of both Thomas and Hill that Wright's testimony would not damage Thomas—and might even damage Hill by association...

...Duggin related that she does not know if Wright ever filed any complaints claiming sexual harassment...

...Well, I hate to put it this way, but he's not dead yet," MacKinnon replied...

...If Hill was telling the truth, Thomas had chosen to sexually harass her—and only her—among the dozens of women who had worked for him over the years...

...She said Wright stated that "she didn't know if she was going to write anything about Thomas but she was looking for a way to get him back...

...Thelma Duggin, a mutual friend of Wright's and Thomas's, told the FBI that she doubted the veracity of Wright's story: Duggin stated that she has known Wright since about 1978 or 1979 adding that they met as co-workers at the Republican National Committee...

...Though she did not charge harassment, Wright did say in the interview with' Senate lawyers that Thomas had asked her for dates and made comments about parts of her anatomy: Q. Were there comments that he made to you that maybe you considered inappropriate...

...Wright was not content to file the charge with the appropriate party upon leaving the agency...

...I am sure of that...

...Why don't you tell us what you remember, in general...

...A Biden staffer.] Q. And so he first called you...

...Hardnett said she eventually resigned from the EEOC because she found working on Thomas's staff "unpleasant...

...She provided no specifics describing this "dimension," however...

...One legendary story from Wright's days at the EEOC concerned an altercation with one of her male staff members at an EEOC conference...

...She also stated plainly: "I am not claiming that I was the victim of sexual harassment...

...She related she confronted Wright concerning major problem areas that needed to be improved: a) Wright's confrontational attitude b) Wright's showing up to work on time...

...And there was never any doubt about that dimension in Clarence Thomas's office," Hardnett wrote...

...At one point, Clarence Thomas came by my apartment at night, unannounced and uninvited, and talked about the prospect of my dating him...

...A. Prior to this banquet...

...She would curse the press out on the phone," recalled Diane Holt, Thomas's secretary...

...Wright and the man exchanged cross words about the conference arrangements he had made, which Wright found inadequate...

...I did not feel that it was a good thing, until I saw Anita Hill on television Monday night and my conscience started bothering me because I knew I felt from my experience with Clarence Thomas that he was quite capable of doing what she said...

...The Democrats had allowed themselves to be intimidated [by the Thomas camp], sidelined at a crucial point in the game...

...Neither Hill nor Wright had contacted the committee of her own volition, and neither evinced any enthusiasm for talking when first approached...

...Wright's performance was abysmal...

...A. No, I cannot give specific comments.Q...

...Clarence Thomas made comments about women's anatomy quite often...

...Wright was soon fired from her job on Capitol Hill due to intemperate and erratic behavior in the office, and she went to work for the Republican National Committee...

...Semerad also stated she denied any type of bias or prejudice concerning Wright...

...A. Yes...

...In general, given the opportunity, Clarence Thomas would say to me, you know, "You need to be dating me, I think I'm going to date you, you're one of the finest women I have on my staff," you know, "we're going to be going out eventually...

...And that is the story of Angela Wright...

...In particular, Duggin recalled Wright stating "I want to get him back...

...Her performance there, in a similar position to the one she held at AID, was also problematic, to put it mildly...

...Angela had a foul mouth...

...It's not clear what her beef with them was...

...Her credibility within a few days after her name first surfaced in the press collapsed in both Democratic and Republican circles, for reasons that will soon become evident...

...Despite suggestions to the contrary in virtually every account of the Thomas hearings, Wright did not charge Thomas with sexual harassment...

...Based on [Semerad's] advice and my own observations I agreed that she should be dismissed and issued the appropriate order...

...At one point, Clarence Thomas made comments about my anatomy...

...Did you fire her, and if so what for...

...Wright had also learned from her experience with Semerad that such tactics do not work, and knew she stood to be exposed as a seeker of revenge if she came forward...

...This was also false...

...He landed flat on his back, and slid under a table in front of a room full of stunned EEOC staffers...

...When asked about the absence of a pattern by NBC's Tom Brokaw, feminist theoretician and Hill adviser Catharine MacKinnon also seemed to acknowledge that sexual harassers tend to be repeat offenders...

...senators—Democrats Brock Adams and Daniel Inouye and Republican Bob Packwood—in 1992...

...Duggin advised she last spoke to and saw Wright in August 1991 in Charlotte, North Carolina, when Duggin was in town...

...SIMPSON: That was enough for you...

...But I know there was nothing more to it than that...

...Semerad] did characterize Wright as being overly sensitive about being a young, attractive black woman...

...She would not testify, but her statement would be placed in the record with no opportunity for the pro-Thomas side to rebut it...

...Former EEOC aide Armstrong Williams had a similar experience with Wright when he visited her in North Carolina in 1989...

...Clarence Thomas did consistently pressure me to date him...

...The revisionist tilt in favor of Hill and against Thomas was completed on the first anniversary of the hearings, when Angela Wright's story was transformed from a subject of deep skepticism even among Democrats on the cornmittee, to a subject for political satire, and then one of suppressed evidence that would have reversed the outcome of the Thomas confirmation vote...

...She related that Blank was head of the news department and Wright reported directly through him...

...She said Wright also said that she "was pissed that he had fired her...

...On her way out the door, Wright suddenly charged Semerad with racism, an incendiary tactic designed to satisfy Wright's vengeful impulse...

...According to David Savage in Turning Right: The Making of the Rehnquist Supreme Court, Hardnett had met with Nan Aron of the Alliance for Justice earlier in the summer to discuss her concerns about Thomas...

...A. Well, I think a more appropriate explanation of what is going on here is I'm answering questions that are just now being asked...

...She advised before she could fire Wright she received a letter of resignation from Wright claiming race discrimination on the part of Semerad...

...When she made her charges she did so at the 11th hour to a staff member who would be sympathetic because he was "looking for dirt...

...She stated that Wright felt she was not being treated fairly and people were judging her on her appearance instead of her accomplishments...

...Duggin said that to some extent, Wright would invite the sexual advances of a man and then brag about having guys hit on her...

...I will say, however, that harassment usually isn't an individual issue...

...The parallels begin with the way each prospective witness first came to the attention of the Senate Judiciary Committee...

...Once she did—and once it was evident that Wright had not charged Thomas with sexual harassment—the testimony that had whetted the appetites of Thomas's opponents and unnerved the Thomas camp was judged to be fairly tepid after all...

...SIMPSON: As a faggot...

...He said that Hill's advisers strongly favored calling Wright to testify, and charged instead that the Republicans and some unnamed Democrats had colluded to keep Wright off the stand to protect Thomas...

...Hill's, was blocked from publicly testifying...

...In his testimony, Clarence Thomas was asked about the circumstances of Wright's quick departure from the agency:thoroughly dissatisfied with Wright's general performance at the time she made this comment...

...Wright was asked about the circumstances of her "coming forward" in an interview with Senate lawyers...

...Angela Wright will soon be with us, we think, but now we are told that Angela Wright has what we used to call in the legal trade, cold feet...

...Oh, Joe, bring her out...

...In her opinion, Wright is "a little shaky on the integrity side...

...Wright frequently made suggestive comments like "I'm freezing my tits off," and told male co-workers that she liked to walk around her house in the nude...

...Soon thereafter, the cartoonist Garry Trudeau picked up portions of the transcript, too...

...Duggin stated that Wright is not one who would be intimidated by the sexual advances of a man...

...She was difficult to work with in the opinion of her peers and supervisors...

...She described Wright as a friend who is high strung to a certain extent...

...Semerad stated she received additional complaints from Blank and from around the AID office that Wright was not putting in a full day's work...

...After the interview with Senate staffers, Wright flew to Washington in anticipation of testifying before the Judiciary Committee on Sunday, October 13...

...Other Anitaphiles began invoking Wright's name throughout the spring and summer of 1992...

...Semerad advised she attempted to counsel Wright about her behavior in an attempt to correct the problem...

...Duggin advised that she was surprised to see that Wright wanted revenge on Thomas so many years later...

...Former office mates remembered having to restrain Wright from pouring boiling water from a coffee-maker out a window, onto a crowd of pro-choice demonstrators outside the committee's offices...

...And what about after this banquet, you remember any specific comments where he talked to you about dating him...

...Wright's dismissal, Mrs...

...Wright went from AID to a political appointment at the EEOC under Thomas, arranged by Phyllis Berry-Myers, a friend from Republican political circles...

...I felt her performance was ineffective, and the office was ineffective...

...You know, Clarence Thomas I think felt very comfortable around me, and I want you to understand that I am not sitting here saying to you that I was sexually harassed by Clarence Thomas," Wright told the interviewers: Q. Did you take them [Thomas's alleged comments] as a joke or did you take them as something that maybe, you know, you had been harassed...

...Wright, whose experience with Thomas was remarkably similar to Ms...

...0 rdinarily, one would not credit such baseless, unsworn statements as Wright's by publicizing them further...

...He read from a letter he had written Wright, "It is my preference that you testify...

...In a subsequent interview with US News, Wright claimed that Biden's staff "is lying," and that they had kept her from testifying.3 After the loud media criticism of the way the committee had mishandled Anita Hill's allegation—and the charges of a cover-up by women's groups—Biden could not have afforded to keep Wright off the stand, even if he had wanted to...

...Wright, who is now going to come and tell us perhaps about more parts of the anatomy...

...Wright had written a letter to AID accusing Mrs...

...As the FBI report indicated, they certainly had cause for concern...

...So I don't think that this was something that was directed at me personally...

...If she was willing to do so then, with or without good grounds for it, why wouldn't she be willing to do so against Clarence Thomas...

...Wright did then and what she is doing now...

...Semerad is one of the most fair-minded people I know...

...As Democratic Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia put it in a speech on the Senate floor, "A responsible, credible citizen presents information about a nominee on a matter of personal behavior, on which there are no direct witnesses and little direct corroborating evidence...

...That was a significant factor in the Senate's decision to confirm Thomas...

...Duggin said Wright enjoyed the attention of men .. Duggin wasn't kidding about Wright's proclivity to "deck" people...

...She advised that after Wright resigned from AID she took a letter of resignation claiming unfounded racial discrimination claims to Capitol Hill seeking revenge on Semerad...

...Wright socked him in the jaw...

...She delayed in making her charges until after the confirmation hearings were concluded...

...Presumably, she took the position that Hill's charges were credible based on her own impressions of Thomas...

...I don't play games...

...Duggin said Wright called her about one to two weeks after Thomas fired her...

...I'd like to examine her.' " L ate Sunday night, Biden's staff reached an agreement with Wright...

...EEOC officials, however, said that Hardnett was fired from the staff after failing on more than one occasion to pass the bar exam...

...She stated she did not know of Wright's dates of employment or title, but did state Wright was fired from her position...

...According to a public statement issued by Jay Morris, the former deputy administrator of AID: . . . Mrs...

...That was my recollection...

...She was hired to reinvigorate the public affairs operation at EEOC...

...Semerad was nominated by President Reagan to the post of Assistant Administrator for External Affairs...

...She said Wright always complained about her supervisors and had a problem working within a structure and keeping a job...

...She had drifted to the Republican side of the aisle not out of an intense ideological commitment but rather as the result of personal connections made at the association for black Republican congressional staffers, where she was first introduced to Clarence Thomas...

...Perhaps fearing that her testimony would be easily impeached, in the end Wright herself decided not to appear...

...Like any chief executive of a large organization, Thomas had taken a series of adverse personnel actions over the years...

...Now an assistant metropolitan editor at the Charlotte Observer in North Carolina, Wright wrote a draft column about Hill's allegations—not her own experiences—after they became public...

...As we have seen, Wright had filed a complaint in the past, against Kate Semerad...

...Duggin also revealed that Wright lied to her about the circumstances of her dismissal from the agency: Duggin stated that Wright was always very critical of her supervisors...

...According to Williams, Wright told him over dinner, "If it's the last thing I do, I'll get him [Thomas...

...The clashes would end in a vindictive maneuver by Wright to stop Semerad's Senate confirmation with unfounded eleventh-hour allegations...

...If you want to testify at the hearing in person, I will honor that request...

...She vowed vengeance on a former supervisor for dismissal on the basis of competence...

...She said that at this time Clarence Thomas had already been nominated and since both of them knew him they had some conversation about Thomas...

...But like Hill's initial recollection of her experience with Thomas to the Judiciary Committee and the FBI, Wright could give few specifics of what Thomas allegedly had said to her, and generally refrained from, quoting Thomas verbatim...

...The campaign to rehabilitate and publicize the unsubstantiated comments of a woman who never came forward, and never charged Thomas with sexual harassment, continued in Timothy M. Phelps and Helen Winternitz's book, Capitol Games: Clarence Thomas, Anita Hill, and the Story of a Supreme Court Nomination...

...Wright's behavior became "more and more belligerent," Semerad said in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, until an order was signed for Wright's dismissal...

...At the RNC, Wright's reputation did not improve...

...It's not an issue with one person...

...Written testimony was far less dramatic, or convincing, than live testimony...

...Years later, Wright would be offered the chance to settle this score when contacted by the Judiciary Committee staff about the column she had written on Thomas...

...What Wright wrote in, the unpublished column is not known, and she refused to release it to the Judiciary Committee...

...She often failed to come to work or came in late...

...He knew of a column that I had written that was going to be published detailing my opinion of this, of Hill's allegations...

...Few people have seen it . . . until now, dear hearts...

...She advised that this was creating a morale problem in the office...

...She said she can recall Wright speaking about racist employers and the possibility of filing a complaint but she does not know whether or not she actually made a complaint...

...ore than anything else, then, "another woman" M with a credible charge would have so enhanced the plausibility of Hill's case that the Thomas nomination would likely have been defeated...

...Q. I see, could you make that available to us...

...Semerad of racism and incompetence and threatening retaliation...

...Wright never testified, but in a late-night deal struck with the phantom witness, her interview with Senate Judiciary Committee lawyers was entered into the official record (unlike the other staff interviews), and made publicly available...

...Duggin went on to say that Wright told her the Charlotte Observer was pressuring her to do something about Thomas...

...She stated that Wright worked for [Rep.] Charles Rose of North Carolina before she worked for AID...

...She has known Wright to enjoy a few beers and then dance on the table at the clubs...

...A. It was Mark Schwartz...

...THOMAS: That is right...

...In Capitol Games, Phelps and Winternitz report that, in addition to Republican efforts to keep Wright from testifying, Anita Hill's camp had effectively blocked Wright's appearance, fearing that Wright would undermine Hill's credibility...

...SIMPSON: That is kind of the way you are, isn't it...

...Lacey Davenport "readmitted the testimony" of Wright: "Ms...

...Instead, her statement was quietly slipped into the record...

...Semerad characterized Wright's personality as being vengeful, angry, and immature...

...Moreover, her work was unprofessional—that is, late, incomplete, and ungrammatical...

...Charles Rose of North Carolina...

...I said, 'Oh, Joe, this is the woman who was fired for calling someone a faggot...

...Women know when there are sexual dimensions to the attention they are receiving...

...Doonesbury's fictional Rep...

...Ironically enough, each of those cases was far stronger—and more typical—than Hill's, principally because in each instance more than a half-dozen women came forward, some under a veil of anonymity, and made allegations that, if true, constituted an undeniable pattern of abusive behavior by the senators...

...And the straw that broke the camel's back was a report to me from one of the members of my staff that she referred to another male member of my staff as a faggot...

...Semerad stated that Wright advised her she felt she was being unfairly treated...

...What, for example, had Thomas said about women's anatomy...

...Why any of the Democrats would have wanted to protect Thomas is not readily apparent...

...She related that Wright was having problems with adequately performing her job responsibilities...

...Q. Can you tell us who that was...

...At the time, however, even scandal-hungry reporters wouldn't touch Wright's statement...

...The accusations were ridiculous on their face...

...Wright had hopes of becoming a columnist for the paper, and had been casting around for something compelling to write a sample column about...

...He was very nice to all of us and spent a lot of time with us...

...Angela Wright, in a sworn deposition, said that Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her . . . Totenberg was wrong on both counts: the Wright statement was not sworn, and—one good reason why it warranted little attention during the hearings—it did not charge Thomas with sexual harassment...

...As for Ogletree's suggestion that the Republicans conspired to keep Wright from appearing, the Republicans insisted they were all for hearing Wright's testimony—probably for the same reason the Democrats wanted it hushed up...

...Wright's story is also interesting for its several parallels with Hill's—casting further light on the operations of anti-Thomas Senate staffers...

...Now if Angela Wright doesn't show up to tell her tale of your horrors, what are we to determine about Angela Wright...

...Wright next took a job in the Reagan administration as a political appointee at the Agency for International Development, where she worked from the spring of 1983 to January 1984...

...Even if she did not charge harassment, however, if Thomas did in fact say these things, Hill's portrait of Thomas as someone who preyed on subordinates for dates and spoke in a lewd fashion would be more plausible...

...Why she never appeared has been the subject of speculation and widely diverging accounts...

...Wright informed Semerad she would not be Semerad's lackey and would no longer be treated as a subservient subordinate...

...An October 1992 covet story in U.S...

...SIMPSON: And so you just summarily discharged her...

...Semerad held regular counseling sessions with Wright, trying to work out the problem to no avail...

...You said you had not been harassed...

...She gave a statement to Senate staffers...

...Wright also claimed that, at an EEOC banquet, Thomas said to her, "You look good, and you are going to be dating me, too...

...Wright said that Thomas was making a bigger deal out of the situation than was necessary...

...I mean did you take them as a A. Not sexual harassment, no...

...I was struggling with trying to determine, trying to decide whether to say something, when I got a call from the Senate Judiciary Committee and that question became no longer a question...

...Q. All right, now you say that you got a call from the committee when you decided you were going to come forward, did you call somebody or did somebody first call you...

...But the staffers would not take no for an answer...

...It is behavior that people engage in...

...As columnist Stephen Chapman wrote in the Chicago Tribune at the time of the hearings: ". . . to believe Hill, we have to believe that someone who had been the soul of probity suddenly, on her arrival, became a sexual thug—and then, the moment she left, wholly reverted to his saintly self, never to transgress again...

...The heightened awareness of sexual harassment, a valued legacy of the Thomas-Hill scandal, set the stage for harassment accusations lodged against three U.S...

...Hardnett, a former legal assistant to Chairman Thomas, submitted an affidavit to the Judiciary Committee on October 14, the day before the Senate vote on the nomination...

...A n attractive woman with long, braided hair, Wright arrived in Washington in the late 1970s from her native North Carolina, and took a job 'as an aide to Democratic Rep...

...Because the column was not written in, with the intent of publishing it...

...In a demonstration of how the history of the Thomas-Hill hearings was rewritten after Thomas was confirmed, the Wright statement began to take on a second life when it was discovered belatedly by the satirical magazine Spy, in the spring of 1992...

...Semerad advised that if Wright had not resigned she would have been left no choice but to fire her...

...But because they have been continually cited by defenders of Hill like Simon, who quoted extensively (and credulously) from the Wright statement in his book Advice and Consent, her story has taken on a new prominence, and therefore must be seriously examined...

...SEN...

...Subsequent to Ms...

...Duggin said Wright is a person who likes to party...

...In such a case, I look closely at the individual's background and the FBI files to determine whether there are patterns or habits of behavior that would make it more or less likely that the individual behaved in the offending manner...

...In Thomas's case, the evidence showed no such pattern...

...Semerad advised Wright that she would have to fire her if her job performance did not improve...

...A. In general, given the opportunity, Clarence Thomas is the type of person—well, let me back up a minute...

...But I must say that I was perfectly willing to keep my opinions to myself, except, of course, when asked about the Clarence Thomas nomination...

...Q. Can you give us some general description of what you said...

...By all accounts, the racism charge was baseless...

...And one of the things that we do know is, I think, somewhat indicative...

...She seemed incapable of accepting responsibility for her own shortcomings and blamed the episode on external factors...

...It was written in the context of a discussion that I was having with my, with my supervising editor about becoming a columnist.2 At another point in the interview, addressing Senator Strom Thurmond's staffer Terry Wooten, Wright said, "I am sorry, Terry, but I cannot answer, I cannot answer the questions if you are going to insist that I decided to come forward...

...Since she had worked for Thomas at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Hill's charges seemed a tailor-made topic...

...Barbara Lawrence, who shared an office with Hardnett at the time, said, "Thomas was like our mentor...

...Biden interrupted the hearing to announce that Wright had decided not to testify...

...Anita Hill, however, remains Thomas's lone accuser...

...THOMAS: And that is inappropriate conduct, and that is a slur, and I was not going to have it...

...And a totally discredited and, we had just as well get to the nub of things here, a totally discredited witness who does have cold feet .. . According to several EEOC staffers, Thomas was already W right refused to be interviewed by the FBI...

...She repeatedly clashed with Kate Semerad, AID's assistant administrator for external affairs, who had hired Wright to coordinate the agency's media relations...

...She said Wright is very attractive and if one tried to "hit on her and make a pass" she would "cuss like a sailor" and probably hit them...

...Upon her departure, Ms...

...Semerad came to me and said Ms...

...Duggin stated that Wright was very upset...

...When Semerad was later nominated for a higher agency post that required Senate confirmation, Wright followed her with the racism allegation, taking it to Senate staffers working for GOP Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina, who were looking for damaging material on the nominee...

...A. No, I'd rather not...

...This was apparently an unsuccessful effort by Aron to obtain corroboration for Hill's nascent charge...

...Shortly after Hill's allegations made the papers, major headlines appeared that another woman might come forward with sexual harassment allegations against Clarence Thomas...

...Thus the question turns to Wright's credibility as a witness...

...Angela Wright was the so-called "other woman" who made allegations of sexual harassment against Clarence Thomas...

...The decision about Wright's testifying was probably the most important of the whole hearings," the authors asserted: The question of whether more than one alleged victim of Thomas' sexual harassment existed was absolutely critical in many senators' minds...

...Q. Correct...

...Q. Do you have any idea as to how he got your name...

...Someone at the newspaper apparently tipped off Senator Joseph Biden's Judiciary Committee staff to the unpublished column as soon as it became a subject of discussion within the paper...

...Spy reprinted sections of Wright's committee statement in an effort to show that the testimony of this "other woman" had been suppressed by the Judiciary Committee...

...She is also one of the most competent public affairs specialists I have ever met...

...Wright had nonetheless recounted conversations with Thomas that lent an air of authenticity to Hill's account...