The Fierce Urgency of NOW New York

Posted on January 28, 2008

In response to the spectacle of Ted Kennedy's lovefest for Barack Obama today in Washington, D.C., the New York chapter of the National Organization of Women blasted Teddy's poor record on women's rights and calls him a traitor for supporting "the new guy" over the qualified woman in the race.

"Women have just experienced the ultimate betrayal. Senator Kennedy's endorsement of Hillary Clinton's opponent in the Democratic presidential primary campaign has really hit women hard. 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. Women have buried their anger that his support for the compromises in No Child Left Behind and the Medicare bogus drug benefit brought us the passage of these flawed bills. We have thanked him for his ardent support of many civil rights bills, BUT women are always waiting in the wings.
"And now the greatest betrayal! We are repaid with his abandonment! He's picked the new guy over us. He's joined the list of progressive white men who can't or won't handle the prospect of a woman president who is Hillary Clinton (they will of course say they support a woman president, just not 'this' one). 'They' are Howard Dean and Jim Dean (Yup! That's Howard's brother) who run DFA (that's the group and list from the Dean campaign that we women helped start and grow). They are Alternet, Progressive Democrats of America, democrats.com, Kucinich lovers and all the other groups that take women's money, say they'll do feminist and women's rights issues one of these days, and conveniently forget to mention women and children when they talk about poverty or human needs or America's future or whatever.
"This latest move by Kennedy, is so telling about the status of and respect for women's rights, women's voices, women's equality, women's authority and our ability -- indeed, our obligation -- to promote and earn and deserve and elect, unabashedly, a President that is the first woman after centuries of men who 'know what's best for us.'"

And speaking of the Kennedys, the family is apparently split. Environmental activist Bobby Kennedy and former Maryland lieutenant governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend support Hillary Clinton. Looks like the Kennedy Primary is a tie. Although Obama certainly got the Kennedy with the biggest mouth (and the greatest disdain from NOW).