Flashback: That time Alan Dixon supported Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas

By Bill Cameron, WLS-AM News

(CHICAGO) The Kavanaugh drama is reminiscent of the time when Illinois Democratic Senator Alan Dixon supported a Supreme Court nominee accused of sexual misconduct.

Dixon voted for Clarence Thomas in 1991 and then lost to Carol Moseley Braun in the next primary.

Five years ago, Dixon told me he didn’t regret his vote because he thought Thomas was qualified and sexual misconduct was not unusual in Washington, “If you want to talk about relationships, you can count on every president going back to Franklin Delano Roosevelt and find a little something there as well. There aren’t many people who are absolutely pure in that relationship.”

Cameron: “But did your colleague Paul Simon counsel you to think twice about voting for Thomas?”

Dixon: “Yeah, both Paul and Gene Callahan advised me against it and said it would be a bad vote back here in a primary.”

Times have changed, but like Thomas, Kavanaugh may be confirmed too.

@ 2018 WLS-AM News

Tags: