Henninger asks his readers to consider this question regarding Atticus Finch, the fictional attorney in Harper Lee's classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird: "What would Atticus Finch make of the "high-tech lynching" of Clarence Thomas?"

Clearly Mr. Henninger didn't understand the confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas any more than he understands the message in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird -- that is, if he read it at all.

Sixteen years after his confirmation for Supreme Court justice by a Democratic-controlled committee, Thomas is still fuming over his perceived ill-treatment by its members and still carries his seething hatred of all things liberal and all things associated with the Democratic Party.

Mr. Henninger comments, "Atticus Finch, I think, would have objected to what was done to Clarence Thomas in that Senate confirmation hearing."

Perhaps Mr. Henninger has forgotten one simple truth: Clarence Thomas was confirmed and now sits on the highest court of the land while sixteen years later he is still engaging in ad hominem attacks against Anita Hill, spouting his childish tantrums and calling her his "most traitorous adversary."

Rancor, bitterness and vindictiveness exemplified by Clarence Thomas, however, are the hallmarks and the defining principles entrenched in the Republican Party. Nobody should expect Thomas' simmering hatred to become tempered over time -- and it hasn't.

On the contrary, Henninger exploits the ceremony honoring Harper Lee who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, magnifying the inveterate, long-standing hatred and contempt that Rupert Murdoch and his confederates have for anyone who dares to criticize or obstruct the conservative agenda hell-bent on installing like-minded, lifetime-appointed, partisan, activist ideologues on every federal court.

It matters little to the Rupert Murdoch Wall Street Journal editors, once a revered business journal, that Thomas had only one year of judicial experience before being ensconced on the highest court of the land.

This is the standard by which George H. W. Bush chose to confront the Democrat-chaired committee when he decided to play the race card in nominating Clarence Thomas who never balks at an opportunity to advance his partisan, activist right wing ideology that is far outside Americans' mainstream interests. His rulings are as predictable as are the right wing fulminations which are appearing with more and more frequency in the Rupert Murdoch Wall Street Tabloid.

I doubt if the fictional Atticus Finch would have any more use for Clarence Thomas' peevish complaints than he would for the distortions of facts produced by a journal that has long since lost its moral compass by abandoning any semblance of truthful reporting.

Richard A. Stitt
Austin, TX