Finally, after 16 years, Clarence Thomas, who was nearly derailed in his Supreme Court confirmation hearing by an orchestrated attack on his character is coming out swinging.

“WASHINGTON - Breaking his 16-year public silence on his bitter confirmation hearings, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas says Anita Hill was a mediocre employee who was used by political opponents to make claims she had been sexually harassed.

Thomas writes about Hill, his former employee in two government agencies, and the allegations that nearly derailed his nomination to the high court in 1991 in his autobiography, “My Grandfather’s Son.”

A copy of the book, which goes on sale Monday, was obtained Friday by The Associated Press.

Powerful interest groups were out to stop him at all costs and they chose “the age-old blunt instrument of accusing a black man of sexual misconduct,” he writes.

Hill, who is also black, had worked for Thomas at the Education Department and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She first made her allegations after Thomas had been nominated to the high court, 10 years after she began working for him.

In the book, Thomas describes Hill as touchy and apt to overreact, not someone who would wait a decade to level a charge of harassment. She had complained to Thomas only about his refusal to promote her, the justice says.

“Her work at EEOC had been mediocre,” he writes.”

Rush Limbaugh will also be interviewing him on Monday and 60 minutes on Sunday night.

Time to brush off the Anita Hill chronicles. Again, another example of how the left (establishing the trend here) treats persons in minorities who happen to be conservative. Think of Condi Rice, Colin Powell and how the left characterised them leading up to the 2004 elections.

This should be good.