Capital Scene: Money Changers

AT a nine-minute meeting of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs last fall, Sen. Lauch Faircloth (R., N.C.) objected to a bill that would have put the Statue of Liberty’s image on a proposed new $1 coin. American women, Faircloth proclaimed, would be insulted by such a gesture: “If we take the Susan B. Anthony dollar out of circulation, no U.S. currency will bear the likeness of a woman. I think this would be a terrible oversight and a slight to the women of the United States.”

Does Faircloth actually think that Lady Liberty is a man? No, but he had been persuaded by Sens. Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.) and Carol Moseley-Braun (D., Ill.) that a statue wouldn’t do: the image had to be one of a flesh-and-blood woman. “We need a real woman. That’s right. Way to go,” cheered Sen. Moseley-Braun immediately after her colleague had spoken.

About the Author

John J. Miller

John J. Miller, a former national correspondent for National Review, is the director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College. He is the author of A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America.

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AT a nine-minute meeting of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs last fall, Sen. Lauch Faircloth (R., N.C.) objected to a bill that would have put the Statue of Liberty’s image on a proposed new $1 coin. American women, Faircloth proclaimed, would be insulted by such a gesture: “If we take the Susan B. Anthony dollar out of circulation, no U.S. currency will bear the likeness of a woman. I think this would be a terrible oversight and a slight to the women of the United States.”

Does Faircloth actually think that Lady Liberty is a man? No, but he had been persuaded by Sens. Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.) and Carol Moseley-Braun (D., Ill.) that a statue wouldn’t do: the image had to be one of a flesh-and-blood woman. “We need a real woman. That’s right. Way to go,” cheered Sen. Moseley-Braun immediately after her colleague had spoken.

About the Author

John J. Miller

John J. Miller, a former national correspondent for National Review, is the director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College. He is the author of A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America.