Word: hecklers
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PERHAPS HOPING to woo the feminists into her camp, Heckler gave a lengthy analysis in April 1961, on the floor of the House, of the effects of Reagan's budget cuts on women. The clock ticked on and on as the Congresswoman discussed first housing, health services, legal services, CETA program. Social Security benefits and students loans, all of which, if cut, she stressed, would have a disproportionately severe effect on women. One month later she voted yes on three crucial procedural votes which ensured passage of Reagan's budget, while covering herself by voting no on the budget itself...
...wasn't unlike Heckler to go with the flow." Resnek says. "Waffling was the basis of her career...she was interested in her political survival." Heckler managed to appear to be against the budget, while actually helping to pass it--that is, until Barney Frank called her bluff. As Pierce says, "Heckler's strategy was always something like 'for my own survival I will adopt this position for a while and drop it when people forget about it. 'But with unemployment as high as it is in Fall River, people don't forget about Ergonomics." He adds, "Margaret was straddling...
...early spring of 1982, when President Reagan fired Joy Simonson, the administrator of the federal programs mandated by the Women's Education Equity (WEE) Act, and replaced her with one of Phyllis Schlafly's assistants from the Eagle Forum. Feminists, including Barney Frank, publicly expressed outrage, but Heckler, who had been a very vocal supporter of the WEE Act, greeted Reagan's dicy move with a roaring silence...
...Heckler's silence on that issue, along with her about-faces on the ERA, the budget, and abortion, that got her into so much trouble with the feminists and ultimately her constituents. "You can't talk about Margaret Heckler and women's issues," says Pierce, "without talking about Margaret Heckler and the way she handles all issues. Think about it--here was a woman with 16 years in the House and she had no seniority--you've got to work hard at that. She jumped from issue to issue to catch the spotlight...so no one really knew what...
That may be true in the electoral sense, but since Heckler is in charge of Health and Human Services, now, sitting on a budget larger than that of any nation in the world except the United States and the Soviet Union, her effect on women and women's issues, including the Squeal Rule, goes beyond mere irritation. The chances that she will come through as a heroine are not great...