Gloria Steinem

Facing attacks from a group of local veterans over his campaign's ties to Gloria Steinem, Democratic congressional candidate Steve Harrison is choosing to stand by the famed women's rights activist.

Steinem has endorsed and actively supported Harrison in his campaign to win a congressional seat representing parts of Brooklyn and Staten Island.

She was widely criticized last week for implying that John McCain’s experience as a prisoner of war is overrated. Steinem made the comments as she campaigned for Hillary Clinton, who she is also actively supporting. The Clinton campaign denounced her remarks.

In a letter dated March 5, a group of local veterans demand that Harrison not only denounce Steinem, but return the money he took in at a fund-raiser where she was on the host committee.

In response, Harrison released a public statement last night that that reads in part:

“I do not read her comments as disparaging Senator McCain or his military service. She only states that his service alone is not enough for him to lead the nation.

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I will not cast Ms. Steinem aside for exercising that right concerning Senator McCain's candidacy. After all, had Ms. Steinem not wielded free speech so deftly on behalf of women during the past four decades, it is likely that American woman would still be cast in the role of second class citizens. None of us should want that."

The veteran's letter and Harrison's full response after the jump.  read more »

AUSTIN, Texas—Feminist icon Gloria Steinem took to the stump on Hillary Clinton’s behalf here last night and quickly proved that she has lost none of her taste for provocation.

From the stage, the 73-year-old seemed to denigrate the importance of John McCain’s time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. In an interview with The Observer afterward, she suggested that Barack Obama benefits—and Clinton suffers—because Americans view racism more seriously than sexism.

Steinem also told the crowd that one reason to back Clinton was because “she actually enjoys conflict.”

And she claimed that if Clinton’s experience as first lady were taken seriously in relation to her White House bid, people might “finally admit that, say, being a secretary is the best way to learn your boss’s job and take it over.”

Steinem raised McCain’s Vietnam imprisonment as she sought to highlight an alleged gender-based media bias against Clinton.  read more »

Here’s an invitation to Democratic congressional candidate Stephen Harrison’s February 27 fund-raiser at Social Bar in Midtown West.
 read more »

Two views of a new book about the generational divide that bedevils feminism.  read more »

The New York Times endorsed Hillary Clinton for re-election, highlighting how she differed from Sen. Joe Lieberman after they both voted for the Iraq War. Lieberman stood with the administration; Hillary didn't. (Gloria Steinem, though, is not impressed.)

"All that said, she has hardly been a profile in courage...Mrs. Clinton's biggest flaw is her unwillingness to risk political capital for principle. That is not to say that she lacks principles, but whenever her moral convictions become politically inexpedient, she will struggle to find a way to cloak them in vague rhetoric or deflect attention with a compromise that makes the danger go away."

Chuck Schumer didn't give campaign money directly to Joe Lieberman, and didn't want too much attention for the help he did give Lieberman during his primary against Ned Lamont.

Political analyst Charles Cook said, "If nothing changes, I think the House will turn. The key is, if nothing changes."

Mark Green said he'll campaign on Sept. 11. And Yvette Clarke didn't report her entire salary from the City Council on her taxes.

-- Azi Paybarah

In today's money-game news:

A small vault's worth of deep-pocketed donors will gather at the Manhattan home of George Soros this Wednesday to throw some serious cash towards the campaign of attorney Judy Aydelott. Aydelott is running for congress in the 19th District (i.e, the Hudson Valley 's "country house" region) against six-term incumbent Sue Kelly. Among the hosts of the $1000-$2100 event? Jayni and Chevy Chase, Stanley Tucci, Gloria Steinem, Ambassador Robin Duke, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Greg Sargent reports that in 2005 the Democrats outraised Republicans on Wall Street for the first time since 1994, thanks in part to the combined, one-two Hillary-Schumer fund-raising punch.

In other Hillary news, the Daily News reported this weekend that the senator has been renting out her donor list as a way to squeeze every last penny from her fund-raising base. While this strikes us as a little bit money-grubbing, to be sure, did any donors really think these people dind't sell their names?

And John Kerry continues to pursue the impossible, or at least the improbable: in the hopes of currying favor with Democratic candidates, party committees, and other groups that might be helpful to a presidential bid, he has doled out more dollars to these groups than any other 2008 hopeful, according to Roll Call (subscription only) and Political Wire.

-- Lizzy Ratner

As Jaclyn Geller, 38-year-old feminist, entered the bridal atelier on the eighth floor of Barneys on  read more »

It was fitting that Betty Friedan, whose book The Feminine Mystique exploded through the suburbs whe  read more »

What is Gloria Steinem’s advice to young women these days?  read more »

What is Gloria Steinem’s advice to young women these days?  read more »

An irregular dispatch from the Observer's men's blog.

Power Chicklets How do those ladies over at the Catbox keep themselves so busy? Looks like one of 'em found the time to count vaginas in the Observer's Power Geezers issue, and concluded the Pink Paper needed a little more pink! Gloria Steinem, the Salonettes report, "is one of the 10 women on the Observer's 31-person geezer list (cough, cough)."

It's cute when chicks try to do stuff with numbers! Sorta like the Powder Puff football game on Homecoming Thursday, huh? No tackling, now!

But so we're gonna help you out with some more of that math stuff, because we're chivalrous. The geezers who got profiled were generally over 70. And when you subtract 70 from 2005, you get...1935.

So we're talking here about a generation born 37 years before Title IX (we know, sorry: more numbers! But that's the law that says you girls get your own basketball teams and stuff). We're sorry that the Observer couldn't include, for instance, the female members of the New York Five. Or the woman who runs Conde Nast.  read more »

We'll try to improve the numbers when we do Power Secretaries.

Tom "HO HO.... WHOA!" Scocca

When the spring 2005 issue of Ms.  read more »

Wednesday 14th We're knee-deep in May, and that means drag queens, your skin going blotchy becau  read more »

But Sirio-sly, folks Are you one of those annoying, Palm Pilot poking New Yorkers who likes to insis  read more »

A History of the Wife , by Marilyn Yalom.  read more »

Recently, we've had a heavy rainfall of books on the virtues and pleasures, the excitement and oppor  read more »

Whenever Time magazine runs one of its "Is Feminism Dead?" cover stories (there have been no less th  read more »