(12/15/98)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - American feminists expressed outrage Tuesday at the push to impeach President Clinton, and women's movement pioneer Betty Friedan blamed it on ``a bunch of dirty old white men.''
``Even if he did what he's alleged to have done, what's the big deal?'' Friedan said, referring to Clinton at a news conference with more than a dozen other women leaders. ``Just because the president abused his power in an attempt to garner sexual favors from a woman in his employ, lied about sex under oath, has a long-standing pattern of sexual misconduct, embarrassed his wife, daughter, friends, and colleagues in front of the people of the most powerful nation in the world, and has probably gotten away with even more that we have yet to learn about, doesn't mean a feminist shouldn't support him. After all, he's a democrat.''
``To have our will overthrown by a bunch of dirty old white men trying to use sexual issues wrongly ... to impeach a president, this is really a disgrace to Washington, to the Congress, to the United States,'' said Friedan, author of ``The Feminist Mystique'' and a founder of modern U.S. feminism.
Friedan said she would call for a women's march on the Capitol if the move for impeachment ``goes much further.''
Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority group, said she and others at the news conference planned to go together to Capitol Hill to argue against impeachment, which is set for a vote by the full House Thursday.
The House Judiciary Committee voted last week to refer four articles of impeachment -- two counts of perjury and one each of obstruction of justice and abuse of power -- over Clinton's attempts to hide his affair with Monica Lewinsky in sworn statements in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case and in grand jury testimony.
Since the scandal erupted last January, U.S. feminist groups have generally supported Clinton even as they decried his behavior in the case, citing his work on such issues as child care, domestic violence, pay equity for women and Social Security.
``The present tragedy is that Congress has become a one-issue forum, and that issue is `get the president,''' said Kathy Rodgers, head of the National Organization for Women (NOW) Legal Defense and Education Fund. ``And as a result the greater welfare of all Americans goes unheeded and our hopes for a government of wise and judicious leadership from both Congress and the president are profoundly diminished.''
Also represented at the news conference were the Black Leadership Forum, Business and Professional Women Clubs Inc. USA, National Women's Political Caucus, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, United Farm Workers, National Council of Negro Women, the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League and the African-American Women's Clergy Association.
Rep. Maxine Waters, a California Democrat who voted against the articles of impeachment as a member of the Judiciary Committee, was also present.
The conservative Independent Women's Forum took issue with the feminist news conference, issuing what one member, Ivy McClure, called a ``sarcastic'' statement even before the event ended.
The non-profit, non-partisan group called on NOW and the Feminist Majority to help reform sexual harassment law by demoting perjury in sexual harassment cases from a felony to a misdemeanor and giving immunity ``from political or legal jeopardy involving perjury in a sex-related suit'' to all elected office-holders.
The statement said that ``while the feminists purport to speak for all women, they have proven that their national leadership lacks the common sense and integrity to even identify women's best interests.''