George W. Bush has appointed dozens of women--more than any other president--as senior White House staff. (Who's Who).

George W. Bush has appointed dozens of women--more than any other president--as senior White House staff. But his latest appointment won't earn any plaudits from feminists: Attorney General John Ashcroft recently named Nancy M. Pfotenhauer, president of the conservative Independent Women's Forum to the National Advisory Committee on Violence Against Women, a group that advises the Justice Department on implementation of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994. But the IWF not only opposed the 1994 legislation; it went to court to try and stop it from becoming law and has attacked it vehemently ever since. Sally Satel, author of PC, M.D., has argued in the IWF journal that "the battered women's movement has outlived its useful beginnings," while columnist Betsy Hart predicted that the domestic violence law would "perpetuate false information, waste money and urge vulnerable women to mistrust all men." Says Kim Gandy, the president of the National Organization for Women: "I'm appalled, but I am not shocked."