Henrietta Hay's Column

Congress will never be quite the same. There are those who say that is a good thing. But who will keep the good old boys' blood pressure up when Pat is gone? Who will step up to the front of the House and puncture the pompous? Who will toss out the one-liners that go right to the heart of the stuffy?

Pat Schroeder is 55 and has decided to go out, "at the top of my game." She has 23 years of outstanding service in the House of Representatives, was named to the Women's Hall of Fame, is one of Newtie's least favorite people in the whole world, and made Ollie North's list of the country's 25 most dangerous politicians. How can you top that? And she still has a big chunk of her life in front of her.

But what about the rest of us? I'm losing my one true ideological friend in Congress and I'll miss her. She has been the one person I could trust to speak out and let the chips fall where they may, the one Representative who is more concerned with issues and truth and people than politics. Of course that hardly made her Miss Congeniality in the House of Representatives.

1972 was an exciting year. The Vietnam War protests were in full swing. We were surrounded by flower children and hippies. The women's movement was gaining momentum. The Equal Rights Amendment finally passed Congress after being submitted and defeated every year since 1923.

And Pat Schroeder was elected to Congress. She emerged from those years of ferment, a highly intelligent, Harvard educated lawyer -- with the courage of her convictions. And she has never lost the convictions or the courage to fight for them.

It really scared the good old boys when this 31 year old female came out of the west believing she was as good as they were and not afraid to speak her mind. She arrived full of confidence and enthusiasm, with a fiendish sense of humor , a notable lack of respect for the stuffier traditions of the House and the willingness to say it like it is.

For 23 years hers has been one of the strongest voices in America for the rights of women and children, minorities, all the disadvantaged. She has been a constant advocate for the issues that most affect women -- the Equal Rights Amendment, abortion rights, fighting sexual harassment, family leave, women in the military, uterine cancer research, contraception research. Bills that she introduced that became law included Violence Against Women Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act. She led the fight for women in the military, and then demanded their rights as she insisted on investigation into the Tailhook scandal.

Her enemies - and they are many - prate about "family values." I don't know for sure what "values" they mean, but if a solid family life is one of them, Pat might have invented the term. She was accompanied to Washington by husband Jim, a six-year-old son and a two-year-old daughter. 23 years later she and Jim are still married and the kids are corporate executives in Manhattan . She was not tarnished by the House Bank scandal, has never been investigated by the FBI.

She is famous for taking care of her constituency. And although I'm not part of it, I found that whenever I needed information, her office was the one to call because her staff was faster and more helpful than any of the others.

Feminists talk about rights for women. Pat made them happen. She was in the right spot with the right personality to cause change. Few women have had the opportunity to make so many important men so angry. They don't like her style. They don't like her "in your face" answer to stupidity. But she has been in there fighting for us for 23 exciting years. It's a good thing there are not 435 Pat Schroeders in the House of Representatives, but I'm sure glad there was one.

Enjoy the rest of your life, Pat, and in the words of Molly Ivins, "Hang in, keep raisin' hell and don't forget to keep laughin."