By Peggy Simpson
So far this election year, the angry grass-roots organizing energy is strongest on the right, but the Tea Partiers are hard to pigeonhole says veteran D.C. journalist and frequent WMC reporter Peggy Simpson.
Now that the Tea Partiers seem to have found their sea legs in national politics, what is known about them? It’s [...]
By Peggy Simpson
Able to quickly reach a well-developed network of women throughout the country, an alternative banking system performs while the Haitian economy is in shambles.
A micro-credit program and banking system for more than 200,000 women in Haiti has come to the rescue of the overall economy in the wake of the devastating earthquake. [...]
By Peggy Simpson
At a critical moment for health care reform, Townsend says it is essential for religious progressives to speak up.
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend broadened the Kennedy family’s dispute with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Tuesday night.
She elaborated on an op-ed she wrote for Politico.com criticizing the Conference of Catholic Bishops’ opposition to health care reform [...]
By Peggy Simpson
Senate Democrats held firm to allow debate to begin on a health care bill that avoids the abortion restrictions of the House-passed measure—and pro-choice activists are mobilizing to keep the heat on. But there are many hurdles ahead.
Everyone knew the import of the Saturday night Senate vote on health care.
Yes, it was historic [...]
By Peggy Simpson
After the shocking setback in the House for abortion rights, women’s rights groups turned their attention to the Senate, which could begin debate on health care reform next week.
Whether the Senate blocks a House-passed amendment that would vastly expand federal bans on abortion depends partly on whether the women’s groups can persuade their [...]
By Peggy Simpson
The price for health care reform in the House is women’s right to choose—and, adding insult to injury, the deal was negotiated by the first woman to serve as House speaker.
Well, now it’s known: it was reproductive rights that were thrown under the train.
During last summer’s chaotic Town Hall meetings, feverish opponents to [...]
By Peggy Simpson
House and Senate members return to D.C. next week having heard an earful from constituents on health care reform. It falls to President Obama to cut through the confusion.
The good news in a CBS news poll is that Americans are confused by the debate about health care reforms.
Two-thirds of them say they think [...]
By Peggy Simpson
The firestorm about the public option may miss the point for women. Women’s groups have worked with the White House and legislators to put critical expansion of care in all the major health care reform bills making their way through Congress.
Bloggers and cable news folks talk about the schism between leftist Democrats and [...]
By Peggy Simpson
Conservatives tried to convince the Senate, and the nation, that an impressive judge with an impeccable record was simply a product of affirmative action. It didn’t work.
The confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor as the third woman and first Latina to sit on the Supreme Court never was a done-deal.
It might look like it from [...]
Women’s rights activists give high marks to President Obama for his fast footwork in reversing many policies of the Reagan and Bush presidencies.
They also look forward to significant happenings once a newly created White House council on women and girls gets into high gear. Bush had eliminated a women’s office; Obama put it back, expanded [...]
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