The Supreme Court Justice and the Billionaire, Part Two.
Still, that backdrop of Nazi memorabilia. Egad.
Ed. Note: Sometimes fiction helps you understand things in real time that nonfiction does not. Part Two of this fictitious account based on real-life events chronicles the possible relationship between a Supreme Court Justice, “Thomas Clarence,” and his billionaire donor, “Carl N. Hrow.” As in Part One, this Dragnet-based disclaimer is offered: “The characters and events depicted in this posting are fictional. Any resemblance to names or incidents is entirely coincidental.”)
The setting: Deep in the Dallas suburbs where Carl N. Hrow sits on the veranda admiring his collection of life-sized marbled despots–Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, etc. They cast long shadows from across the Hrows’ perfectly manicured lawn and creep up to where the real estate billionaire enjoys a Yamazaki scotch on the rocks while reading the New York Times late online edition.
Expensive liquor or not, he does a spit-take across the stone and glass table surface that holds his aperitif and laptop. He recovers only briefly enough to blurt out “Kitty!” –gasping his wife’s name in hopes she’s close enough to hear.
“What is it, Carl?” she says, running over while waving off servants who are also rushing up to help him. To Kitty, this obviously isn’t some physical crisis, but a personal or economic one. And it doesn’t look good.
HROW: Kitty, look at this! (pointing to the laptop opened to the Times’ front page).
She reads the headline, “Justice Thomas Failed to Report Real Estate Deal with
Texas Billionaire.”
Oh my god, she stammers, adding, under her breath, “I warned him.”
HROW: How did they find out about this? Justice Dufus deliberately omitted putting my name on his mother’s bill of sale… Yet, this turns up!
KITTY: Not sure. The press has its ways. And Thomas isn’t the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree.
HROW: We knew that going in…
(He looks out into his statuary collection and spots his favorite, Adolph. He throws back his shoulders and straightens his spine. The likeness seems to give him strength.)
Well, it’s not going to affect me one bit. But it may be the end of the line with our so-called “special relationship.” There’s blood in the water, and the sharks are moving in for a good meal.
KITTY: That may be so, darling. But just remember, we’ve got our billions to keep us warm…and protect us. The Clarences and their ilk are always the chum–not us.
(They laugh and go into dinner.)
Meanwhile…more than half-way across the country in Washington D.C., Justice Thomas Clarence crumples the late-day edition of the Washington Post and throws it in the wastebasket. Its headline, “Report: Thomas sold real estate to donor, didn’t report deal,” peeks up over the trash. His wife, Ginger, rushes into the
Clarences’s library.
GINGER: What’s going on, Daddy?
CLARENCE: They’ve found the $133,363 2014 bill of sale of my mother’s home sale to Carl’s company–the one on which I did not reveal that Crow was the purchaser. They know about his fixing it up and buying up the other properties in the neighborhood. They know he bought the house next door–mother’s obnoxious noisy neighbors–and other houses on the street that increased the value of all the properties. They know we’ve got a direct “economic relationship”! That’s bad…Those sons of bi–...
GINGER: Well, so what? What are they gonna do, fire ya? Do you want to call Carl?
CLARENCE: Oh, God no. They’ve rewinded the tape of me saying last year after the Dobbs draft leak that the Court must be above reproach. I said if there’s a break in trust, it’s like infidelity in a marriage. It’s never the same.
(Ruefully) Me and my big mouth…
Now, my Democrat enemies are throwing this back at me, using this deal to make me look two-faced. Of course, I’m not, but…
GINGER: Uh, wait a minute. Are you trying to tell me something? Are you fooling around?
CLARENCE: No! Are you even listening? I’m talking about how the Dobbs leak words are coming back to haunt me.
Those jackals Schumer, Durbin, and that Rhode Island holier-than-thou pest Sheldon Whitehouse are licking their lips over this. Wanna ruin me. I know them…
GINGER: That’s up to Roberts, not them! And he’s not gonna do a damn thing. Little weakling. You know John–afraid of his own shadow.
CLARENCE: If he doesn’t, Congress can!
GINGER: Congress??? With Jordan and Greene in charge?
CLARENCE: You mean, McCarthy…
GINGER: No, I mean, Jordan and Greene. Kevin doesn't say boo…
CLARENCE: True enough. But, this is going to be a lynching!!!
GINGER: Save it, honey. It was a good line in the Anita Hill hearings, but it doesn’t have the same juice now that you’re on the Court. To that point, you’re a judge on the SUPREME DAMN COURT OF THE UNITED STATES. NOTHIN’ CAN GET
TO YOU!
(She sneaks up and gives him a tickle) He giggles a little, then sinks into a little personal routine familiar to just themselves…
CLARENCE: (He eventually wriggles out of her embrace and says…) Well, Mommy. You may be right. Let’s not worry about it at the moment…
(They head into their bedroom, and close the door.)
Post script: The Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan Washington watchdog group, has petitioned the Department of Justice to conduct an investigation of Clarence Thomas’s economic relationship with Texas-based real estate billionaire Harlan Crow. And Sheldon Whitehouse announced last night he has asked that Attorney General Merrick Garland investigate Clarence Thomas’ real estate dealings under the federal “Ethics in Government Act.”
—trg