Bush Warned Thomas: Politics, Not Merit : Confirmation: The President calls to extend congratulations and justice-to-be delivers a public thank-you after a tumultuous, painful time.

The prescient warning was there, from none other than the President of the United States, right at the start.

On that crisp summer day in Kennebunkport, Me., when George Bush offered Clarence Thomas the nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States, he was said to have told his guest at the Bush family’s summer home: “Clarence, you’ve made it this far on merit, but from here on out it’s politics.”

And when each of those difficult, often painful political steps had finally been played out--just moments after Vice President Dan Quayle, as president of the Senate, declared “on the vote, the yeas are 52, the nays are 48, the nomination of Clarence Thomas of Georgia to be associate justice of the Supreme Court is confirmed”--the President of the United States had but a few more words for his justice-to-be:

“Congratulations. You did a fine job. You were a wonderful inspiration, and you have the overwhelming support of the American people. You have a lifetime of service to your country ahead. Well done.”

The call from the President, who was in the Oval Office, to the judge, in his wood-frame suburban home in Alexandria, Va., came at 6:20 p.m., just minutes after the Senate roll call had been completed.

An hour and a half later, in a steady rain, Thomas stepped out of his doorway, umbrella in hand, to deliver a televised thank-you to his supporters. He offered only a passing reference to the tumult of the past week, brought on by the allegation that he had sexually harassed an assistant, Anita Faye Hill, when they worked together a decade ago.

He thanked “all who helped me, all my friends, all those people who prayed for me, those whom I knew, those whom I didn’t know, all the people who sent cards and letters and flowers and candy and all sorts of things, but most of all who sent love and who sent support. I’d like to thank them.”

“I’d like to thank America,” he said, “for the things it stands for. And I’d like to think that at least in my life, in our lives, that we can uphold those ideals.”

“I’d also like to make it unequivocally clear that throughout this process, and especially the last painful week, that I give God thanks for our being able to stand here today and I give God thanks for our ability to feel safe, to feel secure, to feel loved, and I give God thanks that the Senate approved me in this process,” he added.

“No matter how difficult or how painful the process has been . . . this is a time for healing in our country,” Thomas said. “We have to put these things behind us.”

Throughout the climactic day, as the nation’s attention was fixed on the Senate and calls from throughout the nation flooded Washington at five times the normal volume, according to American Telephone & Telegraph, the man at the center of the storm kept out of sight.

Although more votes were cast against Thomas than had ever been cast against a nominee confirmed for the Supreme Court, there was little sign of doubt in the outcome, despite the busy round of calls from the White House to the Capitol. The vote would be close, to be sure, but Thomas would prevail.

“Judge Thomas is a good man, and he’ll be a good addition to the Supreme Court,” White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said.

It may have been Thomas’ dramatic, angry return to the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Friday night, when he denounced its proceedings as a “high-tech lynching” that, according to his supporters, began to turn the tide in his favor. But the final day’s work was in the hands of others on Tuesday--and none of his chief allies suggested he was playing a role.

Indeed, the “handlers”--Thomas’ chief patron in the Senate, John C. Danforth (R-Mo.), who as Missouri attorney general was Thomas’ first boss right out of law school, and the several White House aides--offered conflicting reports even on his whereabouts.

At the judge’s office in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, law clerk Greg Katsas responded testily when asked how the nominee was spending the day.

“To be honest, I don’t know how he is,” Katsas replied. “I haven’t seen him.”

A week earlier, the plan had been for Thomas to make a triumphant visit to the Capitol as the roll of the Senate was being called. That was when the vote was scheduled for 3 p.m. PDT on Tuesday, Oct. 8, and the nation had not heard of the sexual harassment allegations that were about to burst forth.

In Pin Point, Ga., Thomas’ tiny, workaday hometown of approximately 300 residents located along the edge of a marsh south of Savannah, the Senate vote was anxiously awaited--and then, as darkness fell, celebrated.

“I’ve said a lot of prayers,” Leola Williams, Thomas’ mother, told the Savannah Evening Press, according to the Associated Press. “God has blessed the family and Clarence.

“All the senators that I don’t know by name, I thank God for them and the ones that voted against him, I pray for them that someday he can show them what he can do for our nation.”