[Not the way I remember it.]
That’s exactly the way it happened. Black fury at Thomas’s “high-tech lynching” at the hands of Anita Hill’s Democratic backers was precisely why 11 Dems ended up flipping and voting for his confirmation. Yes - the Democrats had a 57-vote majority in the Senate. They could have filibustered, blue-slipped, etc. They did not, thanks in large part to Thomas’s political skill, and a black solidarity that crossed party and ideological lines. Some of Thomas’s outrage was real, but a good part of it was probably a pose, given his ideological inclinations. The most important part is that it worked, and it got us the most right wing SCOTUS judge in the face of a 57-vote liberal Democratic majority at the ripe young age of 43.