For Now Sans Clinton, Democratic Women Rally

June 17, 2008 — -- The news has had ten days to sink in: There will not be a female President starting in 2009.

The woman who came so close to being the Democratic nominee has not surfaced at her Capitol Hill office (or anywhere else) since leaving the race, and there are reports that some women are so frustrated with Democrats for selecting Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton they could flee the party to support McCain.

But for the other ten Democratic women in the Senate, today it was time to "put our lipstick on, square our shoulders and suit up for change."

Those defiant words came from Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., the self-appointed dean of the women's caucus in the Senate and a Clinton supporter during the Democratic primary battle.

"During the primary we had different favorite candidates, said Mikulski, who, at less than 5 feet tall, stood on a riser to see over the podium to an assemblage of Capitol Hill staffers and advocates from women's groups.

"But today, but now we have come together to offer America a checklist for change."

Women the world over, she said, rely on checklists, and senators are no different.

"Like women everywhere the way we get something done is to have a checklist, a must-do list, and no matter what at the end of the day we get the job done."

She said that as women in the Senate, she and her colleagues were going to concentrate not only on "macro issues" but on "macaroni and cheese issues."

From seeking "equal pay for equal work" with legislation to "protecting the families check book," by standing up to the oil, pharmaceutical and cell phone industries, 10 of the 11 Democratic female senators took to a podium erected at the former home (now a museum) of suffragette Alice Paul, who wrote the Equal Rights Amendment, which gave women the right to vote only during the last century and was so often cited during the primary season.

The checklist analogy carried through the speeches.

Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark, as a working mother of twin boys, said she has her own checklist.