The Pink Lady

A longoverdue political biography of Helen Gahagan DouglasBroadway starCongresswoman Nixon nemesis and forgotten heroine of A merican liberalism.If Hillary Clin... » 

A longoverdue political biography of Helen Gahagan DouglasBroadway starCongresswoman Nixon nemesis and forgotten heroine of A merican liberalism.If Hillary Clinton struggled to crack the glass ceiling in 2008 imagine thechallenges that faced Helen Gahagan Douglas. She was a threeterm Congresswomanbeginning in 1944 and ran for the U .S. Senate against Richard Nixon justthree decades after women gained the right to vote. Douglas was also a Broadwaystar opera prima donna friend of FDR lover of LBJ and passionate NewDealer. Acclaimed author Sally Denton brings every dimension of thisextraordinary woman to life in The Pink Lady a compelling account ofDouglass incomparable life as stage star politician and public intellectual.A brutal 1950 Senate campaign waged by Republican Congressman Richard Nixonended Douglas career as an elected officialNixon and his henchmen taggedDouglas The Pink Lady and with the help of the FBIs J. Edgar Hoover madeher victim to the same McCarthyist antiRed hysteria that was sweepingHollywood. Nixons savage campaign was the prototype of rightwing smeartactics a model studied by Lee Atwater and Karl Rove. Over four decades inpolitics Douglas was a torchbearer for progressive ideals supportinglegislation for affordable housing public education and social securityextension in foreign policy she fought for nuclear disarmament and thecreation of Israel. Dentons rich narrative restores Douglas to her rightfulplace as a pioneer of American politics. «