I Often Forget That My Wife Has A Job

SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose his wife’s income from work at the right-wing Heritage Foundation for SIX YEARS.  It could happen to anybody.

Between 2003 and 2007, Virginia Thomas, a longtime conservative activist, earned $686,589 from the Heritage Foundation, according to a Common Cause review of the foundation’s IRS records. Thomas failed to note the income in his Supreme Court financial disclosure forms for those years, instead checking a box labeled “none” where “spousal noninvestment income” would be disclosed.

She made close to three-quarters of a million dollars in that time frame, but he forgot?  Is the phrase “noninvestment income” too complex for a sitting Justice?  The whole point of disclosure is to expose conflicts of interest, which Thomas clearly had, given that his wife was working for tan organization that was regularly filing briefs and taking sides in cases that came before him in his capacity as a judge.

Does anybody recall the hue and cry when Timothy Geithner didn’t fill out his paperwork correctly on just a portion of his income?  Where are the paperwork Puritans now?