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Exclusive: Clarence Thomas Responds to "Justice for Hire" Charges
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas says his acceptance of $42,200 in free gifts in the last six years - almost four times the amount of the other eight justices combined - doesn't mean his decisions are for sale.
"We don't even get paid a $200,000 salary, and a man's got to make a living somehow," Thomas said. "I have a hard job. I worked my way to the top. I deserve the perks. If people don't like it, too bad.
"Those pesky Los Angeles Times reporters who went to the trouble of checking disclosure forms, shame on them. They're vermin, I'm telling you. Just vermin."
Thomas said he deserves the $19,000 Bible, the $15,000 bust of Abraham Lincoln, $1,200 in car tires, the $800 Daytona 500 jacket, $100 worth of cigars from Rush Limbaugh and a $5,000 cash gift.
"And someone as intelligent and insightful as I am should get $500,000 to write a book, even if it isn't included among the free gifts. The free trips and club memberships aren't either. Besides, I needed that $375 performance chip for my Corvette."
In a moment of soul searching and candor, Thomas admitted that he only got the gifts because of his lofty position.
"All right, I know if I was Clarence Thomas the ditchdigger, I wouldn't have gotten zilch. I would have been treated just as I was while growing up in the segregated Deep South. Clarence Thomas the shoe salesman would have been given nothing."
But Thomas vehemently denied that he was planning a nationwide fundraising campaign called "More Money for Clarence," patterned after the tsunami-earthquake relief efforts, to offset his meager salary and earning power.
"That's just a bald-faced lie concocted by my liberal enemies," Thomas said. "They claim President Bush was going to siphon off some of the tsunami money so I can have a decent standard of living. It's lies, all lies."
But Thomas added: "If anybody has some extra coin and wants to send it along, I won't send it back. It'll go to good use. I've had my eye on this yacht and..."
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