Of course he must go. And of course he won't.
Getting rid of lackluster scum on the governmental payroll takes the kind of commitment and ruthlessness only evident in the right wing of American politics. Thus the most secure job in America is to be an incompetent or unethical Republican hack on the public payroll. Way to go, CT!
It may even be a form of career insurance for those who aspire to nothing more than having a safe, well-paid job in US government. Forget ideological proclivities, simply adopt the radical right-wing mindset as an employment survival strategy.
Here's how it works, in a nutshell: If you are a Democrat in a government job, you better keep your nose clean. Send a photo of yourself in your underwear over electronic media, and you'll be shown the door, escorted by your fellow party members. If you are a Republican in a government job, no worries! Cheat on your wives, solicit gay sex, visit prostitutes, take bribes, lie, cheat, steal, whatever; you're job is safe. Your party will lock arms around you and frankly, even if they had either time or spines, the Democrats just don't care. Your personal life is none of their business! Besides, they have much more important things to do cleaning up after your cronies.
So when it's time to pick your team, it makes sense to play for the side whose offense consistently overwhelms the other side. After all, you've got an obligation to put food on your family (as GWBush would say), and if it's all the same to you, why take chances? Nice guys always finish last, as everyone knows. Don't be stupid, this is your future we're talking about. Why make it hard on yourself to succeed?
In evolutionary terms, American radical right ideology makes short-term sense. I got mine, so screw the rest of the species, and everyone else in my own species, for that matter. Long-term however, the strategy backfires. Society breaks down, natural resources dwindle, the entire ecosystem erodes.
That's when people like Clarence Thomas should feel less secure. But no, they're in the seats of power, safely ensconced behind the controls while the rest of us take turns as crash-test dummies for the wrong-headed policies they either supported, or, best case scenario, simply failed to supplant while they were too busy getting theirs.
For the radical right, being corrupt or merely incompetent has the added bonus of having no downside. The right keeps the left so effectively on the defensive that no bandwidth remains for holding any Republican accountable for any failings. And just to make sure the deal cannot be unsealed, the right has cleverly seduced a religious demographic into willingly providing moral cover for anything they do. Genius!
In the last two decades, a popular Democratic president who served during the most robust economy in recent years was impeached for lying about his sex life. A Republican president turned that economy into a shambles, sent thousands to their deaths based on his lies, then flipped off our country and the entire planet with a flat-out admission of breaking international torture laws just for good measure. Yet he walks free. Which party do you think is the safest to belong to?
There are only two ways you can lose your mojo as a Republican politician in the US: 1) be considered a weak link (see Michael Steele or Harriet Miers), or 2) have your negative story become a runaway media circus (see Watergate). In the former case, you are quietly replaced. In the latter, a convenient nationwide decoy mechanism is now available: Faux News can always be relied upon to create a diversion.
So could Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas actually lose his job? Doubtful, especially since Republicans know his replacement would chosen by a Democratic President. Will he be rebuked? Possibly. Will he care? Not likely. Will Americans rise up and demand his resignation? You must be kidding.
In the meantime, keep a eye out for dramatic breaking news from Faux. Surely the Palin family could do something inanely fascinating, Rush Limbaugh could say something breathtakingly offensive, or John Boehner could inexplicably turn on the waterworks.
Oh wait, too routine. I know: some Democrat somewhere is about to get caught with his pants down.
Wonderful.