Pat Schroeder: Tougher than Teflon
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Cover of 24 Years of House Work... and the Place is Still a Mess
Schroeder recalls: "Shortly after I was appointed, I tried to come to some sort of truce with Hébert. I paid a call on him at his office. He was the only congressman with a patio entrance and a seven-room suite including an "adultery" room with nude paintings, a bar, a couch and no windows." Schroeder says there were hundreds of pictures of Hébert in his office. "He was an ego run amok. He had long ago lost all sense of the Armed Services Committee as a democratically run body. "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away," he told me. "And here, I am the Lord." "
Schroeder says that as a naive first-termer she thought the Constitution's system of checks and balances worked. When she found it didn't, she understood she had nothing to gain by acting demure. She did her homework, and challenged the country's military-industrial complex. Though she may have failed at running for the U.S. presidency, Schroeder succeeded admirably as a fighter for women and families, as well as for the democratic process.
*Betsy Marston
