Outside the Beltway

Virginia Thomas to Resign as Head of Liberty Central

Steven L. Taylor · Tuesday, November 16, 2010 · 1 comment

Via WaPo:  Virginia Thomas stepping down as head of Liberty Central

Virginia Thomas, political activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, has decided to relinquish control of Liberty Central, the conservative group she founded less than a year ago, so that the organization can escape the "distractions" of her media celebrity, a spokeswoman said.

The thing that I find odd/amusing about that statement is that up and until recently, no one considered Virginia Thomas a “media celebrity” (and I am not sure that they do so now).  Moreover, the media attention that she has received of late has been almost exclusively of her own making.

The best example is her bizarre phone call to Anita Hill (see here).

Further, Liberty Central itself (Thomas’ own, recent, creation) is a publicly oriented, Tea Party linked group.  I am pretty sure that part of the point was acquiring media attention.

Also, if one is a spouse of a sitting SCOTUS Justice and one says that one’s organization exists to oppose the “tyranny” of the sitting president’s political party, that is pretty much a guarantee to garner the interest of the press.