Do we need a Democrat who supported the nomination of Clarence Thomas?

Reports today suggest that Democratic officials promised Specter that the party establishment would support him, rather than a real Democrat, in a primary. If true, few events more vividly illustrate the complete lack of core beliefs of Democratic leaders, as well as the rapidly diminishing differences between the parties. Why would Democrats want a full-blooded Republican representing them in the blue state of Pennsylvania? Specter is highly likely to reprise the Joe Lieberman role for Democrats: a "Democrat" who leads the way in criticizing and blocking Democratic initiatives, forcing the party still further towards Republican policies. --Glenn Greenwald in Salon

Arlen Specter is still linked in my memory to his image on the TV screen that hung above a reception desk at Virginia Mason Medical Center. I was checking in for my first appointment with a breast cancer surgeon, and there Specter was, all prosecutorial, questioning Anita Hill. The woman behind the desk paused as Hill answered him, and we nodded to each other, pleased to see her holding steady under fire.

The Senate confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas's appointment to the Supreme Court had taken an unexpected detour with Anita Hill's testimony. Another woman had found herself where she did not want to be: "It would have been more comfortable to remain silent . . . I took no initiative to inform anyone . . . I could not keep silent."

And so it went with all my pre-op appointments that day. I traded reactions to the hearing with the women who poked, measured, and interviewed me. With the men I stuck to the business at hand, finding myself actively disliking them, willing to characterize all men, for those few hours, as either malevolent or inept. It probably would have been more fair to substitute "Democrats" for "men" in that characterization.

• Clarence Thomas grandfather, Yvonne, 11/16/09; 9:56:48 AM