As the White House mounted an orchestrated campaign yesterday to contain the sex scandal enveloping the President, Cabinet members and Congressional Democrats privately expressed worries that President Clinton may be unable to recover.

Despite a scandal that promises to make President Clinton’s State of the Union message the tensest since Richard Nixon’s 1974 address during Watergate, the President pushed on yesterday. His legal and political advisers have organized to fight criminal, civil, and political threats that imperil his Presidency.

Today, we’ll have an extended conversation with three prominent feminists about what we know so far, what it means for Clinton, and for the country as a whole. Joining us now are Katha Pollitt, columnist for Nation magazine, Linda Hirshman, professor of Philosophy and Womens Studies at Brandeis University, and Catherine MacKinnon, professor of law at the Universities of Michigan and Chicago who pioneered the legal claim for sexual harassment.

Guests:

• Katha Pollitt, columnist for Nation magazine, and author of “Reasonable Creatures” in paperback by Vintage Press.
• Linda Hirshman, professor of Philosophy and Womens Studies at Brandeis University, author of the upcoming ??Hard Bargains: Politics and Sex published by Oxford University Press.
• Catherine Mackinnon, professor of law at the University of Michigan and University of Chicago, pioneered the legal claim for sexual harassment, co-author with Andrea Dworkin of the upcoming ??In Harm’s Way, published by Harvard Press.