Do you have to be white to do that? Bob Herbert, who Blondie quotes to support her idea that liberals are anti-black racists, is African-American himself, to judge by his picture in the paper. Is he bigoted against blacks too, or does he just disapprove of the job Rice has done?

A more systemic pattern will have to be established to justify charges of racism. Two black Republicans who have been controversial in their own rights do not constitute a pattern.

One offensive political cartoon notwithstanding, Rice may very well be outside of her range of competencies. We all have those.

As for Thomas, he has not shown much independence from Scalia, though he has managed to disagree with Scalia (and, indeed, with every other member of the court) in the racial descrimination case of Thomas Miller-El two years ago, in which the Court strongly suggested that racial profiling of prospective jury members violated the civil rights of Miller-El, who was convicted of murder by the jury so selected and awaits execution. But you're from Texas; you might be acquainted with this.