There’s a new ProPublica report on a trio of right-wing oligarchs fulfilling Clarence and Ginni Thomas’s champagne wishes and caviar dreams. You can read the whole thing here (and pitch in a few quid for the tremendous public service ProPublica reporters are doing here if you’re so inclined).
The latest report says that in addition to the mind-blowing largesse Thomas and the kooky missus receive from Harlan Crow, the justice has three other right-wing billionaire sponsors: H. Wayne Huizenga, David Sokol and Paul “Tony” Novelly. All three met Crooked Clarence after Bush appointed him to the Supreme Court, and all independently decided to shower Thomas with luxuries out of the goodness of their hearts:
During his three decades on the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas has enjoyed steady access to a lifestyle most Americans can only imagine. A cadre of industry titans and ultrawealthy executives have treated him to far-flung vacations aboard their yachts, ushered him into the premium suites at sporting events and sent their private jets to fetch him — including, on more than one occasion, an entire 737. It’s a stream of luxury that is both more extensive and from a wider circle than has been previously understood.
Like clockwork, Thomas’ leisure activities have been underwritten by benefactors who share the ideology that drives his jurisprudence. Their gifts include:
At least 38 destination vacations, including a previously unreported voyage on a yacht around the Bahamas; 26 private jet flights, plus an additional eight by helicopter; a dozen VIP passes to professional and college sporting events, typically perched in the skybox; two stays at luxury resorts in Florida and Jamaica; and one standing invitation to an uber-exclusive golf club overlooking the Atlantic coast.
Rhetorical question: does Thomas ever pay for his own vacations? He probably can’t afford it since he’s barely scraping by on his $285,000 annual salary, plus whatever off-the-books piles of cash for “consulting work” that Leonard Leo can funnel to the dumb-as-a-post insurrectionist wife.
When ProPublica busted Alito for corruptly accepting a luxury fishing vacation, he snippily typed out a pained and misleading prebuttal for publication in the WSJ because that’s how he rolls. Thomas is mostly silent in public, but the scale of his entitlement snaps into view with occasional recorded comments:
(Thomas) once complained that he sacrificed wealth to sit on the court, though he depicted the choice as a matter of conscience. “The job is not worth doing for what they pay,” he told the bar association in Savannah, Georgia, in 2001, “but it is worth doing for the principle.”
Sure it is, as long as you can also loll around on yachts anchored off the Amalfi coast. Also, ProPublica obtained a Thomas “biography” the right-wing oligarch Huizenga hands out to family and friends that contains this choice quote from Thomas:
“We are in a society where everything is quid pro quo,” Thomas said, but not with the Huizengas. “I don’t do anything for them and they can’t do anything for me.”
Except send a private and lavishly decorated 737 just for him, of course. Jesus, these people are absolutely shameless.
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