LETTER: JUSTICE THOMAS BEYOND BELIEF

To the editor:

Although most reportage on "Strange Justice" (Jane Mayer's and Jill Abramson's book on the Clarence Thomas U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearing) has focused on Justice Thomas' interest in gynecological art studies and films featuring fusillading genitalia, I consider that aspect of the man's life fairly unimportant.

However, the thing that convinces me absolutely that Thomas is a lair, and a perjurious liar, has nothing to do with Professor Anita Hill's testimony. It is his assertion under oath that he had never discussed the Supreme Court decision in Roe vs. Wade. I am more willing to believe that Gen. William Westmoreland never discussed Vietnam than that someone whose life work was reading the law in various capacities never discussed one of the most famous and controversial Supreme Court decisions in recent history.

The flip side of this is that all of the 52 U.S. senators who voted to consent to Thomas' appointment in spite of this obvious whopper are either so easily gulled that it is not safe to let them out on the street without a guardian or else so morally anesthetized by ideology that they're willing to overlook anything.

DONN S. MILLER

Tamms, Ill.