Does Vice President Biden regret helping Clarence Thomas become a Supreme Court justice?

Reviews of the upcoming HBO program “Confirmation” remind some of us and enlighten others too young to have been around in 1991, of the crucial role played by now Vice President Joe Biden in the narrow Senate vote in favor of appointing Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. When the Court’s first African American justice, Thurgood Marshall retired, President George H. W. Bush wound up nominating the then head of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to replace him. I recall Bush’s praise of Thomas as the most qualified person in America to fill that court seat (a slight exaggeration). Thomas’ principal proponent in the Senate was Missouri Republican John Danforth, an exceedingly wealthy heir to the Ralston Purina fortune and a holier than thou High Episcopalian. (The paternalism toward Thomas on Danforth’s part was something to behold but was completely lost on the saintly Senator.)
As Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Biden was apparently hoping for a smooth confirmation process. But when University of Oklahoma law professor Anita Hill provided troubling evidence of Thomas’ unsolicited sexual comments and advances toward her when he was her boss at the EEO, the process threatened to come apart.
The Big Democratic Liberal from Delaware at once sought to dig up dirt on Hill and refused to call other witnesses with stories akin to Hill’s–stories that might have sunk Thomas’ by then shaky confirmation process. Instead, Biden helped Thomas to get confirmed, and for a quarter century now Thomas has generally been a most reliable conservative vote on all manner of cases.
Vice President Biden has certainly supported progressive causes during his long legislative career. But his key role in putting Thomas on the Court surely damages his reputation among many of his (former) admirers.
After reading these reviews, I am pleased that Biden decided against running for President. Let him write his memoirs and discuss the Clarence Thomas Affair.