Gerstein:

The phone call Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s wife placed to Anita Hill earlier this month, seeking an apology for Hill’s claim 19 years ago that Thomas sexually harassed her, may go down as a textbook lesson in unintended consequences.

With a single voice mail message two weeks ago Saturday, Virginia Thomas managed to rekindle interest in a story many Americans no longer remember or never heard about—and set in motion a series of events that could seriously undermine her husband’s credibility and damage his long effort to distance himself from his controversial confirmation to the court.

After years of refusing interviews, Lillian McEwen, a former girlfriend of Thomas’s, agreed to talk to The Washington Post and appeared to corroborate Hill’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearings on Thomas that he had a keen interest in pornography and sometimes made sexually-suggestive comments to women in the workplace.

She reiterated that point in an interview with ABC7’s Rebecca Cooper Friday.

“He was obsessed with pornography,” McEwen told ABC7. “It was something he talked about quite frequently.”

McEwen also confirmed reports that Thomas asked a colleague about her bra size and that he was a regular at a Dupont Circle shop that offered pornographic films.

“The owner of the store stocked Clarence’s preferences behind the counter,” McEwen said.

McEwen said that Virginia Thomas may not have had all the facts about her husband when she approached Hill last week seeking an apology.

“Clarence should know that [Hill] doesn’t owe him an apology, but it’s not something he would have necessarily communicated to his wife,” McEwen said. “I would tell her to have a conversation with her husband and get the truth out of him, but the chances of that happening are not great.”