Rabbit Punches

The tale of the gender zap

Who was the Easter Bunny at the White House egg roll? Was she a Munchkin? If so, did that mean the President was the Wizard of Oz? Was his daughter, who was brought into the fray, in any way like a 600-pound gorilla? And where was Ursula Meese? Such was the level of debate last week over the Administration's approach to ending discrimination against women.

The bickering began with a blast from Barbara Honegger, a Justice Department aide who had been working on ferreting out sexually biased laws and regulations. Ronald Reagan, who opposes the Equal Rights Amendment, had pledged that eliminating such laws, state as well as federal, would be the cornerstone of his efforts to achieve equal rights for women. Honegger wrote in the Washington Post that the work of her task force had been ignored and that the President's approach was a "sham." Then she resigned.

A Justice Department spokesman responded by asserting that Honegger was merely "a low-level Munchkin." White House Press Spokesman Larry Speakes attempted an ungallant rabbit punch of his own. He told reporters: "The last time I saw her she was the Easter Bunny at the White House Easter egg roll."

Some Munchkin. Some Easter Bunny.

Honegger came out swinging at a press conference called by her new-found allies in the women's movement. "This is the Munchkin with the Wizard of Oz," she said, holding up a dignified picture of herself at the White House with the President. And to set the record straight, she said that Ursula Meese, wife of Presidential Counsellor Edwin Meese, had been the Easter Bunny at the egg roll. So she had; Honegger's turn as a bunny was in a staff picture taken to cheer Press Secretary James Brady after he was shot during the assassination attempt on Reagan.

Luckily, Reagan had called in reinforcements. He enlisted his daughter Maureen to work part-time at the Republican National Committee. Her job: to encourage more Republican feminists to become involved in party politics. But some White House aides fear that she will be a renegade advocate who will stir up even more trouble within the Administration. "She is a 600-pound gorilla," said a top Reagan adviser bluntly. "She can intimidate anybody. She'll go right to the old man."

Reagan is anxious to dispel the impression that he is insensitive to discrimination against women. At a Republican women's leadership forum in San Diego on Friday, he said: "All of us are interested in one goal: ensuring legal equity for women." He instructed the Justice Department to have specific recommendations for revisions to federal law on his desk by the time he returns from vacation next week. sb This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.