Did Arlen Specter ever apologize to Anita Hill?

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Hours after former Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter's death was made public, word went around suggesting that he had quietly, belatedly repented for one of his most notorious moments -- serving, back in 1991, as Anita Hill's chief inquisitor and then voting to confirm Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. "Years after Thomas hearing, Specter felt badly about how he had treated Anita Hill (see video below), and sought my help in arranging a reconciliation," wrote Robert Reich, in a widely circulated tweet.

But was there any such "reconciliation," or better yet, apology? After all, for decades after the event Specter had firmly refused to apologize publicly for gleefully grilling Hill, accusing her of "flat-out perjury" and telling the press that Hill's "credibility has been demolished."

"As far as I know there was no reconciliation," Reich clarified in an email. "He expressed to me, one evening when we were having dinner together, his wish for there to be one."

Specter never came anywhere close to expressing that regret in public, though he once said that not a week went by without him being asked about Hill, and he even included her name in the subtitle of his 2000 memoir, "Passion for Truth."

Salon.com > Anita Hll

Did Arlen Specter ever apologize to Anita Hill?