Now The Gender Gap’s In The Cabinet

We made you, Bill Clinton, and we can break you.

Yes, you and all your Democratic friends who are back in office thanks to the 17 percent gender gap. We are women; hear us vote. Some of us are what politicians and pundits so patronizingly dubbed “soccer moms.”

We kicked you to victory. We voted for you in large enough numbers to keep you at your current address. And your pretty little wife, too.

Now what are you going to do for us? You can start by appointing more women to your Cabinet. Half sounds like a nice round number.

Secretary of state? Madeleine Albright has been doing diplomatic work at the United Nations for four years. You’re not going to persuade Colin Powell to join your team. He wants to keep his nose and his record clean while he decides whether to run for president in 2000.

So Albright’s your choice.

For secretary of defense, Nancy Kassebaum, the veteran, reasoned, retired senator from Kansas. She packs the political experience, and what a novel concept - a woman running the war machine.

Henry Cisneros’ tour as secretary of housing and urban development has been less than praiseworthy. If he steps down, Marian Wright Edelman could step in. Her work directing the Children’s Defense Fund has given her a compassionate perspective on the needs of the needy.

Secretary of Transportation Federico Pena has said he would not serve a second term if Clinton were re-elected. Should he head back home to Denver, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein could fill his shoes navigating America’s highways and flyways. Who knows more about getting around than a Californian?

The country lost a seasoned leader when Colorado’s Pat Schroeder retired from the House of Representatives this year. Don’t let her become lost and forgotten in the Rockies. If current Secretary of Labor Robert Reich leaves his post, Schroeder’s talents could be put to good use rooting out unfair labor practices, the fungal growth of sweat shops and gender inequity in the workplace.

Need more names? Barbara Boxer, the California senator who finally convinced the Senate Ethics Committee to expunge Bob Packwood. Faye Wattleton, the classy and articulate former president of Planned Parenthood. Dr. Susan Blumenthal, formerly with the National Institutes of Health and a champion of women’s health issues.

These are resources that shouldn’t be wasted.

When next there’s an opening on the Supreme Court, think female. Two women out of nine justices do not constitute parity. Let me suggest the name Babbitt. Hattie Babbitt, wife of the Interior secretary. Secretary Bruce Babbitt was twice on your short list for a court appointment but didn’t make the final cut.

He yearns for the job but is also invaluable at the Interior Department at a time when endangered species have become blue-plate specials for ravenous anti-environmentalists who fail to see how humans and non-humans can live symbiotically. Go for the alternate Babbitt - a cool, bright lawyer and U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American States who would capably join Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the high court.

Clean up the military. It’s come to America’s attention that piggish enlisted men and drill instructors view female recruits as part of their government-issued equipment. A uniform. A mess kit. A bedroll. A broad. For too many sailors and soldiers, there is nothing like a dame for abuse and a coerced demand for silence.

Military leaders have suggested a “buddy system” as one way women can protect themselves from predators in uniform, bringing a sinister connotation to a term with heart-warming roots. They’re told to travel in pairs and avoid solo contact with potential assailants. Psychologically caging women is a shabby solution to a problem that constitutes criminal behavior in the civilian community.

Sexual assaults in the armed services are not proof that the coeducational system has failed. It is proof that men entering the service often bring with them cannibalistic attitudes toward women, just as they sometimes carry racist ideas.

Those attitudes need to be checked at the boot camp gate. There are no dames in the Army. There are only women defending their country against enemies foreign and domestic. They should not have to fear the enemy within.

It’s payback time, Bill Clinton. We made you president. Now make us count.