The Public Relations Guys Made Me Do It

By Janice Castro

CLARENCE THOMAS is fed up. He believes he was tarnished unfairly by the accusations of some Senators that he is evasive and unscholarly and that he dissembled when he claimed to have held no opinion on Roe v. Wade. But instead of criticizing his accusers, Thomas blames his White House handlers. Says a sympathetic Republican who lobbied Senators on Thomas' behalf: "The White House told him to suck up to people and run away from his views. But as he found out, that approach gets you nothing." Not much respect, anyway.

With reporting by Sidney Urquhart