December 15, 1998   Women's groups held a news conference at the Capitol on Tuesday to denounce the partisan campaign to impeach President Clinton and to ask women's rights supporters to call their representatives and urge that they vote no on impeachment. Pictured left to right:  Linda Chavez-Thompson, AFL-CIO; Lina Frescas-Dobbs, Wider Opportunities for Women; Eleanor Smeal, Feminist Majority; Kim Gandy, Executive Vice President of NOW; Elizabeth Toledo (partially covered behind Gandy), Action Vice President of NOW; Gail Shaffer, Business and Professional Women/USA; Dr. Jane Smith, National Council of Negro Women; Betty Friedan (face covered), author; Bishop Imagene Stewart, African American Women's Clergy Association; Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif.; and Anita Perez Ferguson, National Women's Political Caucus.

Other Statements:  National Women's Leaders Issue Call to Action on Impeachment  Take Action on Impeachment Statement of NOW Executive VP Kim Gandy Urging Women to Lobby Against Impeachment  NOW President Patricia Ireland Challenges Livingston to Rein in Conservatives and Calls upon Women to Lobby Against Impeachment

All of the speakers emphasized that this president was elected by women and that women's interests were being disregarded by the predominantly-male Republican majority in Congress.  The House of Representatives will vote this Thursday, Dec. 17, on the articles of impeachment released by the Judiciary Committee.

"This Congress has been willing to dismiss women's opinions," said NOW Executive Vice President Kim Gandy.  "Women made our voices heard in the opinion polls, but they didn't listen.  So we went to the polls in November and voted our opinions, but they continue to ignore us.  I can tell you now that if they impeach this president, they will not be able to ignore our votes in the next election."

Speakers did not condone or excuse Clinton's behavior, but pointed out that no matter how offensive it was, it does not rise to the level required for impeachment and made a mockery of the standard of "high crimes and misdemeanors."  Both the Constitution and the very real and important issue of sexual harassment are belittled in the process.

After the press conference, the group marched to Speaker-in-waiting Rep. Bob Livingston's office to voice the concerns of the milllions of women they represent – namely that the impeachment hearings have become a partisan process focused on overturning an election that was decided by the votes of women -- if only men had voted in 1996, Bob Dole would be president.

NOW has been warning members from the moment Livingston threw his hat into the ring that he would be no less threatening a speaker than Newt Gingrich. And this meeting made it clear that Livingston is no friend to women's issues.  His attitude was both challenging and patronizing, and his disdain was apparent.  Livingston remained standing behind his desk throughout the entire meeting, though the majority of the women were seated.  He continually rolled his eyes and even laughed off some of the comments and questions.  Some of the points Livingston made:

•  In comparing this situation to Watergate, he said that Nixon did not commit any crimes, but "only" covered up the crimes of others, while Clinton has covered up his own crimes.  His implication was clear: Clinton is worse than Nixon.

• Livingston said blithely that Al Gore would become president "You like him, he's a good guy" and implied that because Gore can easily step into the role of President, impeachment wasn't a big deal. Several times he made light of the upheaval that would be caused by Clinton's removal.

•  Livingston referred to an ABC News/Washington Post poll released today reporting that 58% of U.S. voters polled believed that if the full House votes for impeachment the President should resign rather than fight on in the Senate.  The women's groups pointed out that this number clearly represents voters' frustration with the issue dragging on and that in fact the same poll found that 61% do not think Clinton should be impeached and ejected from office.

•  Livingston was dismissive of feminism in general and referred to those present as "strident."  He asserted that because of his mother's hardships (she was abandoned by her husband when Livingston was 6 and his sister was 2, and raised them as a single mother) she had better feminist credentials than "half of you in this room." And of course because his mother favors impeachment, he obviously thought that should be the end of the feminist discussion.
 
The group asked if Livingston would be willing to meet again after all of this was over to discuss the issues that would have helped his mother, and are so important to women and families, such as child care, health care and equal pay, and he refused to respond despite being asked twice.

The leaders of more than 30 women's groups spent the day on Capitol Hill speaking out against the possible impeachment of President Clinton.  In Rep. Maxine Water's office, the group studied a target list of undecided House members and strategized how to lobby these members to vote no on impeachment.  From left to right:  Eleanor Smeal, Feminist Majority; Pat Reuss, NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund; Kim Gandy, Executive Vice President of NOW; Waters (on phone); Betty Friedan, author; a Waters staff member; and Elizabeth Toledo, Action Vice President of NOW.

The next stop was a more friendly office, that of House Judiciary Committee member Maxine Waters, who went right to work helping the group target moderate and undecided members of the House to lobby against impeachment.

The group, along with Waters, then met with House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt. Among the points made in the discussion:

• Right now the Republican party is the closest thing this country has ever had to a religious party – the GOP is controlled by the Christian Coalition and religious political extremists.

• The undecided Republican members of the House are under extreme pressure from their party to vote for impeachment – threatened with loss of party money, challenges in their primaries, loss of committee positions critical to their districts, and more.  But the vote is not yet lost; we must lobby these representatives right up until the last minute, as they could change their minds on their way to cast the vote.

• Despite threats from the right, these moderate Republicans (because they are in moderate districts) actually have much more to fear from an election challenge by a moderate Democrat than from an even more conservative Republican, and that we must remind them of our influence in that regard.

• Gephardt predicted that should a trial in the Senate go forward it will be a "whole new world" in this nation, with no comparison to anything we have ever seen. He noted the detriment to progress on any other issues in Congress, the closing of the Supreme Court while the Chief Justice presides over the trial, and the inherent dangers to our economy (and consequently people's individual finances) if the stock market plunges.

• Gephardt stressed that Clinton will not ultimately be treated any different from any other citizen in the same circumstances, except that those consequences are suspended during his term of office. In other words, any criminal charges that are valid now will be still be faced by him after he leaves office in two years.

The women's groups asked Gephardt, as they had Livingston, if he would sit down with us again after all of this is over, to discuss the issues that are truly important to women and he agreed emphatically.

NOW officers and others left the Capitol today committed to organizing members in the next two days to call their representatives to vote against impeachment and to keep reminding the anti-Clinton zealots and the media of the urgent, real-life concerns of women.

Register your opinion by calling your representative right now. If the line is busy, keep trying. Better yet, call the Representative's district office in your area. Send faxes, e-mails, telegrams, hold demonstrations in front of representative's offices, do anything you can to make your objections known. Please check our target list for those districts where we can help an undecided Congress member make up their mind. But whether or not your member is on that list, contact him or her -- every vote counts.

Thank you for your help and for your support of women's rights.