Unexpected winners likely to be women
By Mary Leonard, Globe Staff, 02/14/99
ASHINGTON - This scandal that was, to
many, all about sex and the married man
closes with an unexpected twist: Women come
out winners.
Meager winnings, maybe, for the female leads in
the yearlong soap opera. Paula Jones got her
money and a makeover. Monica S. Lewinsky has
a big book deal and bragging rights for a boffo
performance before the House impeachment
managers. Even the vilified Linda R. Tripp has
embarked on a network TV image-enhancement
tour.
But just as ''the year of the woman candidate''
followed Supreme Court Justice Clarence
Thomas's sexually charged confirmation hearings in 1991, many think
women will benefit politically from Washington's toxic mix of sex, machismo,
and partisanship that ended Friday with President Clinton's acquittal in the
Senate impeachment trial.
It's no coincidence that Elizabeth Dole, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Senator
Dianne Feinstein suddenly are being touted as women who can win high
office in 2000 - even though none has said she will be running for office.
''For heaven's sake, look what we have been put through because of the
foibles of Washington's failed old-boy network,'' said Elizabeth Sherman,
director of the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy at the
University of Massachusetts at Boston. ''People think they can clean things
up by electing a woman who is more honest, more compassionate, more
authentic, and, true or not, not as prone to the kinds of sexual peccadillos
that men are.''
This week, Dole, a two-time Republican Cabinet secretary and the recently
retired head of the American Red Cross, debuted on the political stage with
a speech in New Hampshire that included several references to her gender
and repeated calls for restoring integrity and moral leadership in the White
House.
''There's been a little speculation that I might run for president,'' said Dole,
who is expected to formally announce her intention to do that this week. ''If I
run, this will be an important reason why: The United States deserves a
government that is worthy of her people.''
Polls show Dole, who is married to former senator Bob Dole, the 1996
presidential candidate, not only has a shot at the top of the GOP White
House field but also would defeat Vice President Al Gore in a head-to-head
matchup today.
A year ago, nobody was giving any serious consideration to Hillary Clinton's
running for public office. But her dignified handling of a public
embarrassment, a political crisis, and certainly, a personal ordeal, won Mrs.
Clinton a combination of respect and sympathy that sent her once-sagging
popularity through the ceiling.
Mrs. Clinton also dived into last fall's elections, campaigning where her
beleaguered husband couldn't and proving that she could pump up huge
crowds and make the difference for Democrats in tight races. Now she is
being wooed by New York Democrats to run for an open Senate seat in
2000
''It's wait and see, give her time,'' said Marsha Berry, Mrs. Clinton's press
secretary. ''She has not ruled it in or out.''
Berry said the first lady is ''gracious and listens'' to New Yorkers who are
promoting her candidacy, but she refuses to discuss it, or even think about it,
until the impeachment issue is gone. President Clinton, however, brought it
up at a recent fund-raising dinner in Manhattan, quipping that he might be
remembered as ''the person who comes with Hillary to New York.''
''Hillary's political standing has vastly improved, but isn't it a terrible irony
that people who didn't like her because of her independence, intelligence,
and ambition, found her a much more sympathetic character after she was
taken down and humanized as a humiliated wife?'' said Wendy Kaminer, an
author and public policy fellow at Radcliffe College.
Patricia Ireland, president of the National Organization for Women, said she
thinks Mrs. Clinton ''has an agenda, and she is out there stirring things up.''
NOW also is poised to stir things up. Its political action committee met this
week to plan ways to promote Feinstein, California's senior senator, as vice
president on the Democratic ticket in 2000. One idea is to have NOW
members show up at campaign events featuring Gore or former New Jersey
Senator Bill Bradley with placards that say ''Democrats Deserve Dianne,''
and ''Countdown to D (Dianne)-Day.''
Ireland said NOW officials had not spoken to Feinstein, a proven
money-raiser from a state rich with electoral votes, but she did not expect
her to ''run from the room and slam the door'' on a vice presidential draft.
Feinstein has gotten attention as a tough and persistent critic of the
president's behavior.
''The lesson we learned in the last year is that it is entirely possible to have an
administration that is good on the issues and on appointing women and still
have a streak of sexism a mile wide,'' said Ireland, in an effort to justify
NOW's push to get the second woman on the Democratic ticket. Former
representative Geraldine Ferraro of New York was the first, in 1984.
Unquestionably, President Clinton put women who shared his politics - his
wife, Democratic lawmakers, and feminist activists - on the spot by his
relationship with Lewinsky. The president became a campaign issue last fall
for Democratic Senators Barbara Boxer of California, Patty Murray of
Washington, and Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois, who defended Clinton's
record but said they deplored his conduct. Boxer and Murray were
reelected; Moseley-Braun was not.
Feminist leaders were accused of hypocrisy for loudly championing
sexual-harassment laws but staying silent when such charges were brought
against a president who advocated for women's rights.
''If Democratic women in the House or Senate had turned against him, if
feminist groups had abandoned him, or if his wife had indicated at any point
that she did not stand by him, it could have been a turning point and tipped
the public scales against the president,'' said Martha Burk, president of the
Center for the Advancement of Public Policy, a liberal advocacy group for
women.
Now, Burk said, ''it's definitely pay-back time.'' Women's groups want the
White House to act quickly on their issues: legislation guaranteeing women
equal pay for equal but not identical work, improved child care, and
recognition of the special needs of older women in any Social Security
overhaul plan.
''If that doesn't happen, women who stood by the president are going to be
supremely disgusted and look beyond the Democratic Party, particularly if
Republicans put forward a good female candidate next year,'' Burk said.
Dole has said she is not interested in the No. 2 spot on the GOP ticket, but
three Republican female senators emerged as leaders and up-and-comers in
the party during the impeachment trial. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of
Texas led an unsuccessful campaign to open the Senate's final, secret
deliberations. Maine's two senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan M. Collins,
teamed up to seek bipartisan agreement on a finding of fact proposal to
rebuke the president. That effort failed, too.
Ireland might try to enlist the Republican women in what she says will be a
major effort this year to get Congress to strengthen sexual-harassment laws
and beef up the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for better
enforcement of civil rights laws.
''We're going to make every effort to capitalize on the Republican
Congress's recently expressed and newfound interest in sexual-harassment
laws and enforcement,'' Ireland said. ''Over and over they said, 'We care.'
We say, 'Fine, show us.''' |
