October 14th, 2006 10:49 PM
By Justina Wang / Beacon News
AURORA, IL -- Capitalizing on recent press attention to Hastert's handling of complaints about the former GOP representative's explicit e-mails to a former congressional page, a dozen women in aprons and curlers Thursday called for the speaker to step down.
"We are cleaning house," Maywood resident Robin Schirmer, who spearheaded the demonstration, said. "We think Denny Hastert needs to be made accountable. He's made a real mess of the House, and it's our House."
Schirmer and other members of the local chapter of a women's antiwar group, CodePink, playfully mimicked a list of housewife chores Thursday morning, using a host of props in their signature color.
They swept under a pink rug with a pink broom, aired pink lingerie on a clothesline with pink clothespins, and ironed a pink sheet representing "pressing problems" on a pink ironing board.
"The puns are just endless," Schirmer said. "And pink spray paint goes a long way."
Pinning up lingerie scrawled with phrases like "smelly land deals" and "politics over people," the women pointed to the controversy surrounding the proposed Prairie Parkway, cuts to veterans' benefits and gun-control issues.
"We're here to air Denny's dirty laundry," Geneva resident Siobhan Kolar said, donning a pink shower cap and nightgown.
Since Foley left office in September, Hastert has repeatedly fended off calls for his own resignation.
Geneva resident Diana Skipworth said she does not expect the speaker will step down, but hopes Democratic challenger John Laesch will replace him in the election.
Women have a special role in politics and in cleaning up a "man's world," Skipworth, the Kane County Democratic treasurer candidate, added.
"There's no one taming the world," she said, sporting a hot pink wig and a pink robe. "We need more women to stand up and speak out."
Comments
0