NOW to deliver 1,500 baby bottle nipples to former Sen. Simpson

When former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) presides over the next meeting of President Obama's fiscal commission, he'll receive a surprising package from a women's rights group upset with one of his controversial comments.

NOW announced Tuesday it will head to Capitol Hill to deliver 1,500 baby bottles nipples to Simpson on Wednesday, before the next meeting of the commission on which Simpson serves as co-chairman.

The group is dubbing its effort a delivery of 1,500 "Tits for an Ass."

Several liberal lawmakers and activist groups, including NOW, last month called on Obama to remove Simpson from his post after he wrote an e-mail to a leader of a women's group calling Social Security "a milk cow with 300 million tits."

“NOW's 500,000 members and supporters responded overwhelmingly when we asked them to use our website or Twitter account to help us buy baby bottle nipples,” NOW President Terry O'Neill said in a statement. “And I'm ready to deliver them to Mr. Simpson -- as a going-away gift -- when I urge him to have the decency to step down from the Fiscal Commission."

The groups argued in August that Simpson is unfit to serve as co-chairman because of his disparaging comments and because they say he is not committed to maintaining Social Security.

Simpson later issued an apology and the White House said the ex-senator would remain as co-chairman with former Clinton chief of staff Erskine Bowles. But NOW's effort is a sign that some activists are not satisfied.

A spokeswoman for the group, Mai Shiozaki, said that effort will be accompanied by a picket protest in which other activist groups are expected to join.
 
“The Fiscal Commission should be led by someone who will actually try to address the federal budget deficit, instead of using it as an excuse to undermine Social Security by cutting benefits or raising the retirement age,” O'Neill added. “Alan Simpson is not that person.”

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