In Departure from New York State N.O.W., City Chapter Says Ted Kennedy Is a Friend
Earlier today the head of the New York State chapter of N.O.W. (the National Organization for Women), Marcia Pappas, sent out a statement describing Ted Kennedy's endorsement of Barack Obama as “the ultimate betrayal." But the head of the New York City chapter of N.O.W. has a completely different take.
“He’s been a friend to N.O.W., a friend to women, and a friend to the women’s movement and has a long record of supporting women’s issues,” N.Y.C. N.O.W. president and Hillary Clinton backer Sonia Ossorio told me just now. “I think Ted Kennedy has been a tremendous friend to women.”
That's a far cry from what Pappas said about Kennedy, in part:
“Women have forgiven Kennedy, stuck up for him, stood by him, hushed the fact that he was late in his support of Title IX, the ERA, the Family Leave and Medical Act to name a few.”
When reached in her Albany office, Pappas said she was “inundated” with calls from reporters and would get back to me.
The rift over Kennedy isn’t the first time Pappas and Ossorio have put out conflicting messages (see Greg Camp versus Micah Kellner for Assembly). The national organization of N.O.W. has yet to weigh in (when reached by phone an employee said they would have a statement out shortly), but Pappas has a record of over-the-top rhetoric.
For example, the January 11th press release she wrote, headlined “Psychological Gang Bang of Hillary is Proof We Need a Woman President.”
UPDATE: Here’s the statement from N.O.W. national president Kim Gandy, which will go on the group‘s website shortly. “The National Organization for Women has enormous respect and admiration for Sen. Edward Kennedy (D- Mass.). For decades Sen. Kennedy has been a friend of NOW, and a leader and fighter for women's civil and reproductive rights, and his record shows that.
“Though the National Organization for Women Political Action Committee has proudly endorsed Sen. Hillary Clinton for president, we respect Sen. Kennedy's endorsement. We continue to encourage women everywhere to express their opinions and exercise their right to vote.”
Senator Kennedy is no friend to women. He was responsible for the death of Mary Jo Kopechne; he is rumored to have been responsible for several women's abortions (including two african american women) and treated women like objects for his use and pleasure for many years. If there is someone in public life who makes Bill Clinton look good on this issue, Ted Kennedy is it.
Obama should be embarrassed to stand with him. The Clintons may not know it now but will be happy not to have the bloated drunken Massachusetts slimebag on their side.
Gennifer Flowers? Paula Jones? Monica Lewinsky? Bill's been a VERY, VERY GOOD friend to women!
Whatever Senator Kennedy's flaws, and we ALL have them -- including the incumbent President and his wife -- he and Caroline take the legacies of his brothers VERY SERIOUSLY. The Kennedy family's flaws did not negate their SERVING the Nation and giving their lives in SERVING it. Two brothers served during WWII and the eldest DIED doing so. The second, our 35th President, was never the same physically afterward and was an actual war hero. Ted Kennedy has never trivially leveraged or invoked the names of his brothers in the last 40 years. Ditto, Caroline, her father. This is an important moment FOR THEM and FOR US. They are "passing the torch to a new generation." It is a beautiful thing to see and it is up to boomers, who have not left a political legacy to be proud of, to use the time we have left as Senator Kennedy is doing -- to help Xers/Yers/Millennials prepare to assume their role in a very different world than the Clintons' left us -- and most certainly the Bushes left us. It is time and we should not mock the Senator for taking a LEADERSHIP role in helping with this transition. The Republicans should do the same on their side in all kinds of ways. The Clintons should leave the stage, with GRACE. They had their chance and the way they left The White House and now, has left a bad taste. 40 years from now, Billary will be remembered for...Bob Johnson's SPECTACLE and the SC circus. Of course they and their surrogates will MOCK this moment, as they do everything. For shame for a retired President. Turn the page.
What's troubling about the New York state NOW chapter's condemnation of Senator Kennedy's endorsement is that it never mentions a single issue, campaign position, or argument advanced by either Senator Obama or Senator Clinton. No reason is given for us to choose Senator Clinton and condemn Senator Kennedy other than the fact that she is female and he has chosen to support someone else. It doesn't necessarily follow that just because a leader is a woman that her policy choices will necessarily be better for women than Barack Obama's. I'm not calling for a point by point comparison of the candidates on a single press release. I am suggesting however, that if you're going to call support for Obama "betrayal" of women, you need to show more than the simple fact that Clinton is a woman and Obama is a man. I seriously doubt that anyone in New York state's NOW would vote for a female Republican.
Hillary Clinton assumed she would have both the women's and African-American's vote -- without having to earn it. In her bubble with Gloria Steinem, the issues and challenges facing non-wealthy young women in our modern era, don't register. Barack Obama has had to EARN each and every vote, including those of African-Americans who initially were going more toward the Clintons until the Bob Johnson "minstrel show" and clearly putting her husband out to do what should have been HER work, in SC. Women of every stripe began to question her JUDGEMENT and ability to MANAGE Bill, who was either out-of-control or so fused with her that he BECAME HER and not a good version. Either is not what the Nation needs circa 2008. Modern women cannot sic their husbands on foes in the workplace, nor would they WANT to. This is anti-feminist and consequently young women rightly question her real feminist credentials while watching this SPECTACLE. We are voting for our future...not hers. Women, like African-Ameericans, will make the choice based upon what is in OUR interests...not hers. Circa 2008, HOW you win is as important as winning. Barack understands this after what the Nation has been through. The Clintons and their elite friends/business associates, etc. -- as w/the Bushes -- don't know this in the bubble. Consequently, they are running as if it is 1992. It is NOT. Thank you Ted and Caroline.
Allow me to offer my heartiest wishes.
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What the comments here fail to point out is the "legacy" of JFK is that he was a young attractive President who was assassinated. BUT, he accomplished little or nothing. He was a notorious evil womanizer; sex was a game and he left many pregnant and abandoned, used up and depressed for the rest of their lives. Ted Kennedy is only a grotesque remnant (aside from the plastic surgery) of what became of Camelot (or as a JFK advisor once said, "He came (sexually) a lot.")
Compared to Teddy and JFK, Bill Clinton was a man of high ethics and morals. 'Nuff said.
If Marcia Pappas is correct perhaps we need a female presidential candidate that will not ride into office on the philandering coattails of her former president husband.
And who is Sonia Ossorio's Republican boyfriend supporting for President??
Many Feminists are infuriated with the sexism (and yes it does exist) in this race. We are infuriated at men who pile on Hillary like players at a rugby match, and no one yells foul. We are infuriated that when Hillary makes criticisms of Obama, everyone yells foul. We are infuriated at the reprehensible and unjustified way Obama is using the race card against the Clintons. Yet no one calls foul.
Ms Pappas is totally right about Kennedy's lack luster support on women's issues, though some NOW leaders prefer not to make waves. The nastiness of his endorsement further rankles and shows his insensitivity to the many women whose hopes and dreams of a woman president lie with Hillary. Why is it that when Obama plays the race card, he gets unquestioning support and when feminists claim sexism they are ridiculed and accused of whining? Why is there no sentitivity to women who feel that they are being discriminated against?
I am a 53-year-old white woman who lived in D.C. during both terms of the Clinton administration. I now live in Manhattan. I voted for Bill twice, and I supported Hillary's candidacy for the senate. And yes, I marched in streets for women's rights.
I whole-heartedly support Barack Obama for president, not because of any endorsements but because of who he is and what he believes.
We could debate forever the issue of which male politician, Bill Clinton or Teddy Kennedy, has done more for women over the years, but in the end the truth is that nothing could matter less. I see Barack Obama and Michelle Obama together and I know that this is a man who not only likes, but respects women. The same can never be said for Bill Clinton, no matter what one might think about him as a politician and president.
His downright nasty campaigning on his wife's behalf smacks of guilt, penance, and his personal need to redeem himself. Once again, it's about Bill.
The Clintons always do whatever it takes to win and try to fix it later. And in my opinion, that is exactly how Bill behaves when it comes to women. Teddy Kennedy is no saint, and neither was his brother. The difference is that Hillary Clinton is married to Bill, and has allowed him to humiliate her again and again. There is something profoundly disturbing about how she has either simply stood by, or perhaps even encouraged, his most recent bad behavior.
I don't want Billary in the White House. I don't want to go back there. I want to move forward with Barack Obama.
"We are infuriated at the reprehensible and unjustified way Obama is using the race card against the Clintons."
Excuse me? When did Obama "play the race card"? Can you cite one instance? It hasn't happened. If anyone's played it, it's Robert Johnson when he suggested that Bill's more black because he's stuck his own Johnson into more African-American women. It's Bill when he said with an isht-eating grin, "Well Jesse Jackson won the SC primary twice y'all! Heh heh heh. Jesse Jackson, you know, that black guy with the Hymie Town thing?"
Give me a break. When Obama's people call out that chicanery, they're not playing the race card, they're pointing to it.
This Pappas pout was the most hilarious thing so far this week, however. So thanks for that, Ms. Pappas!
That's right sweetie they're attacking her for being a female *eye roll* FYI she is being attacked for being the frontrunner of the party and her voting record. But do me a favor NOW member stop acting like you speak for women because you sure don't speak for me. I am not going to vote for someone who voted to give Bush the authorization to invade Iraq which is what Hillary did but you know what continue to act like you care about women because in reality you really don't and the blood of dead Iraqis are on your hands just as much as it is on the hands of Bush
let's not sling the mud...talking bout dirty hands look at President Clinton who cheated on his wife while in office not mention with someone twice his age..he has also used her for his very own personal use..also known as a womanizer...we are all flawed in someway or another...
So they also mention that Sen Kennedy voted for no child left behind, and that women are still forgiving him because of that... they forget Hillary Clinton voed the same way?
http://lou-imho.blogspot.com/
What is so ridiculous about all this is that this campaign should not be about Bill Clinton OR Michelle Obama! This should be about the candidates and them alone. Someone said that Barak loves his wife and you can tell he respects women. I would suggest watching the Tyra Banks talkshow episode when he was on. He publically admitted that his wife looked at him with distain in her eyes for betraying her and his children. And at the same time, let's not get all over Hillary for wanting to hold her family together in termoil. What Bill did was wrong, but let's not get on Hillary for not leaving him. Perhaps this indiscretion was small compared to the love they share and the drive to keep their marriage together.
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