Thurmond, Strom Sen

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</div><div>want to get Clarence Thomas off the Supreme Court? The best route to do so may be through his wife, Ginni.There’s history here, and it’s really worth knowing.<div id="story_page_incontent_p2_target" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" />Back in March, I <a href="https://hartmannreport.com/p/what-do-pornography-ginny-thomas" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">shared with you</a> the story of how Senator Strom Thurmond torpedoed LBJ’s plan to make Abe Fortas Chief Justice — Fortas was then the most liberal justice on the Supreme Court — by running the “Abe Fortas Film Festival,” showing porn movies to men in the Senate on a continuous basis for weeks.Thurmond dragged the process out long enough that Johnson’s term expired and Vice President Hubert Humphrey lost the election to Richard Nixon (who’d <a href="https://hartmannreport.com/p/how-republicans-abandoned-democracy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">committed treason to win</a> the White House by <a href="https://hartmannreport.com/p/how-republicans-abandoned-democracy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">cutting a deal</a> with the Vietnamese to turn down the peace treaty they’d negotiated with LBJ). Once Nixon became president, he put Warren Burger on the Court and into that top slot.But that’s only part of the story, and the rest of it, particularly in light of the most recently unearthed nakedly corrupt behavior by Clarence Thomas, brings forward a possible solution to the unwillingness of the Supreme Court to police themselves and Congress’s inability to begin impeachment proceedings.No Supreme Court justice in history has been either prosecuted or removed by impeachment. (Samuel Chase was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/04/07/supreme-court-justice-impeached/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">impeached</a> in the House in 1805, but the Senate failed to convict and remove him from office.)But Richard Nixon figured out how to get one off the bench — specifically, the ultra-liberal Abe Fortas — and there’s a lesson in that experience for us today.While Nixon’s motives back then were entirely partisan and corrupt, the Court today faces a genuine crisis of confidence that shakes Americans’ trust in their government. And credibility is the only tool the Court has to enforce its decisions, as Alexander Hamilton pointed out <a href="https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed78.asp" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">in Federalist 78</a>:[bad code?]"[T]he judiciary, from the nature of its functions, will always be the least dangerous to the political rights of the Constitution; because it will be least in a capacity to annoy or injure them.“The Executive not only dispenses the honors, but holds the sword of the community. The legislature not only commands the purse, but prescribes the rules by which the duties and rights of every citizen are to be regulated.
“The judiciary, on the contrary, has no influence over either the sword or the purse; no direction either of the strength or of the wealth of the society; and can take no active resolution whatever. It may truly be said to have neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment; and must ultimately depend upon the aid of the executive arm even for the efficacy of its judgments.” (emphasis Hamilton’s)
The revelations about three decades of Clarence Thomas’ corrupt behavior have been coming fast and furious in the past few weeks, on top of the shocking revelations laid out last April about billionaire Harlan Crow’s spending millions, starting in 1994, to cement his “friendship” with and apparent influence over the justice.<a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-harlan-crow-real-estate-scotus" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">ProPublica discovered</a> that Crow had showered millions in gifts and luxury vacations on the Thomas’, bought Clarence’s mother’s home and lets her live there rent-free, and put the boy they were raising as their son through high-end prep schools. Since then, America has also learned that Crow also appears to be profiting mightily from Thomas’ tie-breaking votes on the Court.For example, last week Thomas was the tie-breaking vote to gut federal protections for half the wetlands in America, putting the most ecologically diverse and fragile ecosystems in the country up for commercial and residential development.<a href="https://www.levernews.com/clarence-thomas-billionaire-benefactor-is-grateful-for-latest-scotus-bombshell/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Lever News is reporting</a> that this accomplishes a goal that Crow’s companies and the trade associations they’re members of have been working toward for years, perhaps even decades.They’ve spent millions on lobbying, court battles, and submitting Amicus (Friend of the Court) briefs in federal courts, including specifically advocating for the outcome Thomas assured with his tie-breaking vote in last week’s Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency case.Earlier, Paul Blumenthal had <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/clarence-thomas-harlan-crow-business-interests_n_64494a12e4b0d840388c2935" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">written for </a><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/clarence-thomas-harlan-crow-business-interests_n_64494a12e4b0d840388c2935" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Huffington Post</a> about how Crow’s company might benefit if the Clean Water Act was gutted by the Supreme Court, in part because they had some huge development projects that were apparently waiting on the ability to pave over, build on, or erect next to wetlands that had federal protection:“In 2022, Crow Holdings Industrial <a href="https://www.sas.usace.army.mil/Portals/61/docs/Regulatory/publicnotices/SAS-2022-00842-Gordon-0928-AFW.pdf?ver=RdtmgPejHc_qiwBHgYdmGg%3D%3D" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">sought authorization from the Army Corps of Engineers</a> under the Clean Water Act for a warehouse development in Georgia that would result in ‘cumulative adverse impacts to 6.87 acres of wetland.’”
Since the Sackett decision, those wetlands are presumably no longer a concern for Crow’s company. Time to make some money!This is just one of literally dozens — and perhaps hundreds — of decisions Thomas voted on that might have either affected Crow’s companies, affiliated entities and trade groups, or comported with Crow’s political perspective.But while simple corruption like this would probably get a state court judge impeached or even thrown in jail, it apparently isn’t enough to draw fire from either the Justice Department (the only agency with the power and authority to take on the Supreme Court) or Congress (via impeachment).Trying to overthrow the government of the United States, however, may be another matter altogether. And that’s where Clarence’s wife Ginni may be vulnerable.When Richard Nixon wanted to get rid of Abe Fortas, embarrassment (via the “Fortas Film Festivals”) wasn’t enough: Fortas <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1968/10/7/the-fortas-reflex-pwhen-supreme-court/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">defended</a> his vote to legalize pornographic movies and ignored the critics.But then Nixon ordered his attorney general, John Mitchell, to convene a grand jury to investigate a bogus allegation that Fortas’ wife had engaged in a tax-avoidance scheme.She was a lawyer with a prestigious DC firm and an obscure rightwing source had alleged the proof of her involvement in the tax scheme could be found in her safe. It made for lurid headlines, even though she happily emptied the safe for her bosses in the law firm.Mitchell then began pulling together the grand jury and Fortas — knowing the old saw that “a grand jury can indict a ham sandwich” — put an end to the entire charade by resigning from the Court.As Nixon’s White House Counsel John Dean, who was there and knew the players, wrote in his book on the era (<a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Rehnquist-Choice-Appointment-Redefined-Supreme-dp-0743226070/dp/0743226070/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">The Rehnquist Choice</a>):“Did the Justice Department have the goods on Fortas? Not even close. Mitchell’s talk was pure bluff. … Lyndon Johnson’s Justice Department had investigated this question [back when Fortas was nominated for Chief Justice in 1968] and found nothing improper…. Reopening of the matter by Richard Nixon’s Justice Department was purely a means to torture Fortas.”
Nixon’s persecution of Abe Fortas’ wife was as bogus as his war on drugs, both being done for purely political reasons (as I <a href="https://hartmannreport.com/p/heres-the-truth-if-youre-anti-woke" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">mentioned yesterday</a>).With Ginni Thomas, though, the story is quite different.One of the crimes for which Donald <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/trump-news/?utm_campaign=SmartLinks" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Trump</a>, Rudy Giuliani, et al are being investigated is defrauding the federal government (and the voters) by fielding a slate of false or phony electors to steal the 2020 election from Joe Biden and award it to Donald Trump.The Washington Post obtained copies of messages Ginni Thomas sent to more than half the Republican legislators in Arizona and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/01/politics/ginni-thomas-overturn-2020-election-wisconsin/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">multiple ones in Wisconsin</a> encouraging them to do just that. She <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/06/10/ginni-thomas-election-arizona-lawmakers/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">wrote</a>:“As state lawmakers, you have the Constitutional power and authority to protect the integrity of our elections - and we need you to exercise that power now! Never before in our nation’s history have our elections been so threatened by fraud and unconstitutional procedures.”
Asking them to watch a video purporting to prove the election was stolen (that’s since been deleted from YouTube for violating their terms of service), Thomas concluded her message <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/06/10/ginni-thomas-election-arizona-lawmakers/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">with</a>:“[P]lease consider what will happen to the nation we all love if you do not stand up and lead.”
The Post also, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/31/ginni-thomas-clarence-thomas-conflict-jan6-committee/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">in a separate article</a>, documented multiple clear violations of ethics norms committed by the Thomas couple, some of which may rise to the level of violations of law.Additionally, it’s possible Ginni Thomas was involved in the organization of January 6th, although she has denied it publicly. Only an investigation by an agency with subpoena power like a grand jury could determine the truth.As The New York Times Magazine <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/22/magazine/clarence-thomas-ginni-thomas.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">noted</a> in February of last year:“Dustin Stockton, an organizer who worked with Women for America First, which held the permit for the Ellipse rally, said he was told that Ginni Thomas played a peacemaking role between feuding factions of rally organizers ‘so that there wouldn’t be any division around January 6.’
“‘The way it was presented to me was that Ginni was uniting these different factions around a singular mission on January 6,’ said Stockton, who previously worked for Bannon.”
A federal grand jury investigation of Ginni Thomas would serve several purposes.— First, it would demonstrate that there can be consequences for blatant corruption by members of the Supreme Court and their families, thus serving as a deterrent to corrupt practices by other or future justices.— Second, it could shed light on some of the behind-the-scenes actions around the January 6th attempted insurrection and the effort to overturn the election through the criminal fake elector scheme.— Third, it may provoke Clarence Thomas to finally pack it in and leave the Court, as his predecessor Abe Fortas did back in the day.Given his apparent fear of appearing partisan, it’s unlikely Attorney General Merrick Garland would take an action like this on his own or directly through the DOJ. After all, he dithered and ignored Trump’s clear criminality for almost two full years until he was shamed into doing something by the public January 6th Committee hearings.But, if there’s enough public pressure, it may provoke him to appoint a surrogate, a special counsel, to convene a grand jury and begin the necessary investigations.And it’s entirely possible, after Jack Smith sends Donald Trump to prison (please, G-d!), that he’ll have some time on his hands which could be well spent sticking around Washington, DC…<div id="story_page_post_article" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="tp-cxense-placeholder-inline tp-widget-placeholder"><div id="cxense-ff213be4f89eb23ae78d1f6cdb9c24c7b1534ebf" /></div></div><div class="around-the-web" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="from-your-siteheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase;">FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.444px; list-style: none;"><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/clarence-thomas-worst-yet-come/" class="from-your-sitelink rm-stats-tracked" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Why the worst may be yet to come for Clarence Thomas: report ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/ginni-thomas-kevin-mccarthy-letter/" class="from-your-sitelink rm-stats-tracked" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Ginni Thomas tears into Kevin McCarthy in joint letter with ex-Trump attorney Cleta Mitchell ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/Bank/i-admit-it-ginni-thomas-told-the-jan-6-committee-she-never-saw-specific-evidence-of-voter-fraud/" class="from-your-sitelink rm-stats-tracked" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">'I admit it': Ginni Thomas told the Jan. 6 Committee she never saw 'specific evidence' of 'voter fraud' ›</a></li></ul><div class="around-the-webheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase; margin-top: 10px;">RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.444px; list-style: none;"><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/09/29/1125886442/ginni-thomas-wife-supreme-court-justice-testifies-jan-6" class="around-the-weblink rm-stats-tracked" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Ginni Thomas, wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, testifies before Jan ... ›</a></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://apnews.com/article/elections-donald-trump-presidential-elections-election-2020-clarence-thomas-4d160eb611e4d6a07053082b301818f8" class="around-the-weblink rm-stats-tracked" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Justice Thomas' wife long steeped in conservative politics | AP News ›</a></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.ft.com/content/d62e9e2f-3cb6-47ab-bde7-f43a03ecf428" class="around-the-weblink rm-stats-tracked" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Ginni Thomas: the Supreme Court justice's wife caught up in ... ›</a></li></ul></div></div><div>=</div>=

NY MAG ON NAT REV REVISION:

One factoid undergirding this bizarre interpretation is that the partisan realignment obviously took a long time to complete — Southerners still frequently voted Democratic into the seventies and eighties. This proves, according to Williamson, that a backlash against civil rights could not have driven southern whites out of the Democratic Party. “They say things move slower in the South — but not that slow,” he insists.

</div>

His story completely ignores the explicit revolt by conservative Southerners against the northern liberal civil rights wing, beginning with Strom Thurmond, who formed a third-party campaign in 1948 in protest against Harry Truman’s support for civil rights. Thurmond <a href="http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/showelection.php?year=1948">received</a> 49 percent of the vote in Louisiana, 72 percent in South Carolina, 80 percent in Alabama, and 87 percent in Mississippi. He later, of course, switched to the Republican Party.

</div>

Thurmond’s candidacy is instructive. Democratic voting was deeply acculturated among southern whites as a result of the Civil War. When southern whites began to shake loose of it, they began at the presidential level, in protest against the civil rights leanings of the national wing. It took decades for the transformation to filter down, first to Congressional-level representation (Thurmond, who Williamson mentions only in his capacity as a loyal Democrat, finally switched to the GOP in 1964), and ultimately to local-level government. The most fervently white supremacist portions of the South were also the slowest to shed their Confederate-rooted one-party traditions. None of this slowness actually proves Williamson’s contention that the decline of the Democratic Party in the South was unrelated to race.

</div>

<div class="parbase section entrytext">Williamson concedes, with inadvertently hilarious understatement, that the party “went through a long dry spell on civil-rights progress” — that would be the century that passed between Reconstruction and President Eisenhower’s minimalist response to massive resistance in 1957. But after this wee dry spell, the party resumed and maintained its natural place as civil rights champion. To the extent that Republicans replaced Democrats in the South, Williamson sees their support for civil rights as the cause. (“Republicans did begin to win some southern House seats, and in many cases segregationist</div>

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soften on race post 70's , blk dtr

Strom Thurmond, c. 1961</div>

</div>

Throughout the 1960s, Thurmond generally received relatively low marks from the press and his fellow senators in the performance of his Senate duties, as he often missed votes and rarely proposed or sponsored noteworthy legislation.

Thurmond was increasingly at odds with the Democratic Party. On September 16, 1964, he <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_switching_in_the_United_States" title="Party switching in the United States">switched his party affiliation</a> to Republican. He played an important role in South Carolina's support for Republican <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_United_States" title="President of the United States">presidential</a> candidates <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Goldwater" title="Barry Goldwater">Barry Goldwater</a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1964" title="United States presidential election, 1964">1964</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon" title="Richard Nixon">Richard Nixon</a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1968" title="United States presidential election, 1968">1968</a>. South Carolina and other states of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_South" title="Deep South">Deep South</a> had supported the Democrats in every national election from the end of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstruction_era_of_the_United_States" title="Reconstruction era of the United States">Reconstruction</a> to 1960. However, discontent with the Democrats' increasing support for civil rights resulted in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F.Kennedy" title="John F. Kennedy">John F. Kennedy</a> barely winning the state in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1960" title="United States presidential election, 1960">1960</a>. After Kennedy's assassination, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_Johnson" title="Lyndon Johnson" class="mw-redirect">Lyndon Johnson</a>'s strong support for the Civil Rights Act and integration angered white segregationists even more. Goldwater won South Carolina by a large margin in 1964.

In 1968, Richard Nixon ran the first GOP "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy" title="Southern strategy">Southern strategy</a>" campaign appealing to disaffected southern white voters. Although segregationist Democrat <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Wallace" title="George Wallace">George Wallace</a> was on the ballot, Nixon ran slightly ahead of him and gained South Carolina's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Electoral_College" title="United States Electoral College" class="mw-redirect">electoral</a> votes. Due to the antagonism of white South Carolina voters towards the national Democratic Party, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Humphrey" title="Hubert Humphrey">Hubert Humphrey</a> received less than 30% of the total vote, carrying only majority black districts.

At the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Republican_National_Convention" title="1968 Republican National Convention">1968 Republican National Convention</a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_Beach" title="Miami Beach" class="mw-redirect">Miami Beach</a>, Thurmond played a key role in keeping Southern <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delegates" title="Delegates" class="mw-redirect">delegates</a> committed to Nixon, despite the sudden last-minute entry of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California" title="California">California</a> Governor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan" title="Ronald Reagan">Ronald Reagan</a> into the race. Thurmond also quieted conservative fears over rumors that Nixon planned to ask either <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_H._Percy" title="Charles H. Percy">Charles Percy</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Hatfield" title="Mark Hatfield">Mark Hatfield</a>—liberal Republicans—to be his running mate, by making it known to Nixon that both men were unacceptable for the vice-presidency to the South. Nixon ultimately asked <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryland" title="Maryland">Maryland</a> Governor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiro_Agnew" title="Spiro Agnew">Spiro Agnew</a>—an acceptable choice to Thurmond—to join the ticket.

At this time, too, Thurmond took the lead in thwarting Lyndon Johnson's attempt to elevate Justice <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abe_Fortas" title="Abe Fortas">Abe Fortas</a> to the post of chief justice of the United States. Thurmond's devotion to his conservatism had left him quite unhappy with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Warren" title="Earl Warren">Warren Court</a>, and he was happy simultaneously to disappoint Johnson and to leave the task of replacing Warren to Johnson's presidential successor, Richard Nixon.

Thurmond decried the Supreme Court opinion in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_v._Holmes_County_Board_of_Education" title="Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education">Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education</a>, which ordered the immediate desegregation of schools in the American South.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strom_Thurmond#cite_note-Woodward.2C_Bob_1979_Page_56-10">[11]</a> Thurmond praised President Nixon and his "Southern Strategy" of delaying desegregation, saying Nixon "stood with the South in this case."<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strom_Thurmond#cite_note-Woodward.2C_Bob_1979_Page_56-10">[11]</a>

Thanks to his close relationship with the Nixon administration, Thurmond found himself in a position to deliver a great deal of federal money, appointments and projects to his state. With a like-minded president in the White House, Thurmond became a very effective power broker in Washington. His staffers said that he aimed to become South Carolina's "indispensable man" in D.C.

<h3>[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Strom_Thurmond&action=edit&section=10" title="Edit section: Post-1970 views regarding race">edit</a>] Post-1970 views regarding race</h3>

As of 1970, blacks were about 30% of South Carolina's population.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strom_Thurmond#cite_note-PopRace-11">[12]</a> Once the 1965 voting rights act was passed, black votes now counted and their large numbers, combined with those of whites that supported civil rights, could no longer be ignored. He appointed African-American <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Moss%28Senate_staffer%29" title="Tom Moss (Senate staffer)">Thomas Moss</a> to his staff in 1971, described as the first appointment by a member of the South Carolinian congressional delegation (also incorrectly reported by many sources as the first senatorial appointment of an African-American, but Mississippi Senator <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Harrison" title="Pat Harrison">Pat Harrison</a> hired clerk-librarian Jesse Nichols in 1937). In 1983, he voted for making the birthday of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,Jr." title="Martin Luther King, Jr.">Martin Luther King, Jr.</a> a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,Jr.Day" title="Martin Luther King, Jr. Day">federal holiday</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strom_Thurmond#cite_note-Noah-1">[2]</a> However in Thurmond's South Carolina, the honor was diluted as the state offered employees this holiday to celebrate one of three Confederate holidays if they preferred. This practice ended in 2000.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strom_Thurmond#cite_note-12">[13]</a> Despite the actions, Thurmond never explicitly renounced his earlier views on racial segregation.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strom_Thurmond#cite_note-CO_071298-2">[3]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strom_Thurmond#cite_note-Evolution-13">[14]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strom_Thurmond#cite_note-14">[15]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strom_Thurmond#cite_note-15">[16]</a>

<h3>[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Strom_Thurmond&action=edit&section=11" title="Edit section: Later career">edit</a>] Later career</h3>

<h3>Thurmond became <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_pro_tempore_of_the_United_States_Senate" title="President pro tempore of the United States Senate">President pro tempore</a> in 1981, and held the largely ceremonial post for three terms, alternating with his longtime rival <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Byrd" title="Robert Byrd">Robert Byrd</a> depending on the party composition of the Senate. During this period, he maintained a close relationship with the Reagan White House.</h3>

Thurmond served as the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee during the Clarence Thomas hearings in 1991 and worked closely with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden" title="Joe Biden">Joe Biden</a>, then the chairman. He also joined the minority of Republicans who voted for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brady_Handgun_Violence_Prevention_Act" title="Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act">Brady Bill</a> in 1993.

On December 5, 1996, Thurmond became the oldest serving member of the U.S. Senate, and on May 25, 1997, the longest serving member (41 years and 10 months). He cast his 15,000th vote in Sept

Towards the end of Thurmond's Senate career, there was controversy over his mental condition. His supporters argued that while he lacked physical stamina due to his age, mentally he remained aware and attentive and maintained a very active work schedule in showing up for every floor vote. He stepped down as Chairman of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senate_Armed_Services_Committee" title="Senate Armed Services Committee" class="mw-redirect">Senate Armed Services Committee</a> at the beginning of 1999, as he had pledged to do in late 1997

Declining to seek re-election in 2002, he was succeeded by fellow Republican <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindsey_Graham" title="Lindsey Graham">Lindsey Graham</a>.

Thurmond left the Senate in January 2003 as the United States' longest-serving senator (a record later surpassed by Senator Byrd). In his November farewell speech in the Senate, Thurmond told all his colleagues "I love all of you, especially your wives," the latter being a reference to his flirtatious nature with younger women.

At his 100th birthday and retirement celebration in December, Thurmond stated "I don't know how to thank you. You're wonderful people, I appreciate you, appreciate what you've done for me, and may God allow you to live a long time." <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strom_Thurmond#cite_note-16">[17]</a>

On June 26, 2003, he died at 9:45 p.m. of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_failure" title="Heart failure">heart failure</a> at the age of 100, at a hospital in Edgefield and is interred there in Willowbrook

<h2>[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Strom_Thurmond&action=edit&section=12" title="Edit section: Personal life">edit</a>] Personal life</h2>

<h3>[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Strom_Thurmond&action=edit&section=13" title="Edit section: Marriages and children">edit</a>] Marriages and children</h3>

Thurmond married his first wife, Jean Crouch (July 24, 1926 – January 6, 1960) in South Carolina's Governor's mansion on November 7, 1947. She died of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer" title="Cancer">cancer</a> 13 years later; there were no children.

He married his second wife, Nancy Janice Moore (born 1946), <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_South_Carolina" title="Miss South Carolina">Miss South Carolina</a> of 1965, on December 22, 1968. He was 66 years old and she was only 22. She had been working in his Senate office off and on since 1967. It is often said that he ran for president before she was born.[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>] This is false; however, he was old enough to be eligible. They separated in 1991, but never divorced. The two remained married and close friends until his death.[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>] He even considered resigning during his last term, but only if the Governor would appoint his wife to the seat as his replacement.[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

At age 68 (with his wife Nancy at age 25) Thurmond fathered what was then believed to be his first child. His four children with Nancy are: beauty pageant contestant Nancy Moore Thurmond (1971–1993), who was killed when a drunk driver hit her in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia,South_Carolina" title="Columbia, South Carolina">Columbia, South Carolina</a>; former U.S. Attorney for the District of South Carolina and current South Carolina 2nd Judicial Circuit Solicitor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=James_Strom_Thurmond_Jr.&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="James Strom Thurmond Jr. (page does not exist)">James Strom Thurmond Jr.</a> (born 1972);<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strom_Thurmond#cite_note-17">[18]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strom_Thurmond#cite_note-18">[19]</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington,D.C." title="Washington, D.C.">Washington, D.C.</a>, homemaker <a href="http://www.law.edu/alumni/CUALawyer/issues/spring2001/whoandwhere.cfm" class="external text" rel="nofollow">Juliana Gertrude Thurmond Whitmer</a> (born 1973);<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strom_Thurmond#cite_note-19">[20]</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charleston_County,_South_Carolina" title="Charleston County, South Carolina">Charleston County, South Carolina</a>, Council Member <a href="http://www.charlestoncounty.org/handheld/www/departments/Council/Thurmond.htm" class="external text" rel="nofollow">Paul Reynolds Thurmond</a> (born 1976).<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strom_Thurmond#cite_note-20">[21]</a>

<h3>[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Strom_Thurmond&action=edit&section=14" title="Edit section: Another daughter">edit</a>] Another daughter</h3>

Six months after Thurmond's death on June 26, 2003, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essie_Mae_Washington-Williams" title="Essie Mae Washington-Williams">Essie Mae Washington-Williams</a> publicly revealed that she was Strom Thurmond's daughter. She was born to a black maid, Carrie "Tunch" Butler (1909–1948), on October 12, 1925, when Butler was 16 years old and Thurmond 22. He helped pay Washington-Williams' way through college and later paid her sums of money in cash or checks passed through relatives. Though Thurmond never publicly acknowledged Washington-Williams when he was alive, he continued to support her financially. These payments extended well into her adult life.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strom_Thurmond#cite_note-60min-21">[22]</a> Washington-Williams has stated that she did not reveal she was Thurmond's daughter during his lifetime because it "wasn't to the advantage of either one of us"<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strom_Thurmond#cite_note-60min-21">[22]</a> and that she kept silent out of love and respect for her father.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strom_Thurmond#cite_note-foxnews.com-4">[5]</a> She denies that there was an agreement between the two to keep her connection to Thurmond silent.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strom_Thurmond#cite_note-60min-21">[22]</a>

After Washington-Williams came forward, the Thurmond family publicly acknowledged her parentage. Many close friends, staff members, and SC state residents had long suspected this to have been the case,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strom_Thurmond#cite_note-22">[23]</a> stating that Thurmond had always taken a great amount of interest in Washington-Williams and that she was granted a degree of access to Thurmond more appropriate to a family member than to a member of the public.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strom_Thurmond#cite_note-23">[24]</a>

<h2>[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Strom_Thurmond&action=edit&section=15" title="Edit section: Political timeline">edit</a>] Political timeline</h2>

<ul>

<li>Governor of South Carolina (1947–1951)</li>

<li>States' Rights Democratic presidential candidate (1948)</li>

<li>Eight-term senator from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Carolina" title="South Carolina">South Carolina</a> (December 1954 – April 1956 and November 1956 – January 2003)

<ul>

<li>Democrat (1954 – April 1956 and November 1956 – September 1964)</li>

<li>Republican (September 1964 – January 2003)</li>

<li>President pro tempore (1981–1987; 1995 – January 3, 2001; January 20, 2001 – June 6, 2001)</li>

<li>Set record for the longest one-man Congressional <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filibuster" title="Filibuster">filibuster</a> (1957)</li>

<li>Set record for oldest serving member at 94 years (1997)</li>

<li>Set the then-record for longest cumulative tenure in the Senate at 43 years (1997), increasing to 47 years, 6 months at his retirement in January 2003, surpassed by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Byrd" title="Robert Byrd">Robert Byrd</a> in July 2006</li>

<li>Became the only senator ever to serve at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centenarian" title="Centenarian">age of 100</a></li>

</ul>

</li>

</ul>

<h2>[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Strom_Thurmond&action=edit&section=16" title="Edit section: Electoral history">edit</a>] Electoral history</h2>

Thurmond, Strom Sen

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