and thornburgh remembered that i kind did have a double take. i think what the president meant, sort of with a wink in the eye, was that this was the best qualified african-american candidate we could find and i think he's right. end quote. fred mcclure recalls that unlike sutter, thomas han't been immersed in the intricacies of the law and you have to work with him on that because he hasn't spent a whole lot of time studying how the court had dealt with bake error mou reverses madison, or all those dudes because that has not been his life. he has been in a political world. he had a good awareness of the political discussions of the day, but how you connected those with constitutional law issues that the court could be in a position to decide is where we had to spend a lot of time with clarence, end quote. thomas attempted to use the evasion technique that had served justice sutter and other prior nominees so well, also called the ginsburg routine. the senate judiciary committee voted 7-2 in his vote on the nominee and his name headed to the ful

kind of foreign policy trip in november of 1991, the failure of republicans, primarily richard thornburgh in the senate race in pennsylvania in november of 1991, created a kind of panic inside the white house that bush was spending too much time on foreign policy. the trip was canceled; it was then rescheduled, and it was decided it would become a domestic trip to japan in which japan would be asked to change its policies on car imports and exports. c-span: let me jump in -- i want to ask if you have fun writing things like this: "commerce secretary robert mosbacher was allowed to get his grubby paws all over this trip." what's the point? >> guest: i am reflecting rather than speaking. i am reflecting the view of the subject of the chapter, that she had been in various meetings with mosbacher, who came into the planning of the trip when it was decided to bring the chairmen of the big three auto companies along on the trip and turn it into a japan-bashing fest. this was something that made the subject of the chapter as well as many people in the white house very angry because they thought