(I followed my own advice yesterday. I had nothing to say, so said nothing.)
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Play Nice. I hate to agree with rightwingers, but John Kerry’s wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, did disgrace herself and the Democratic Party with her hypocritical and unwarranted attack upon a rightwing journalist last Sunday, telling him to “Shove it.” Tho “Shove it” does not rise to the level of Vice President Cheney’s infamous remark to Senator Leahy (which apparently was approximately “Go f**k yourself.”), Mrs. Kerry’s remark followed a denial that she said something she had indeed said.
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In urging more dignity and respectfulness in campaigns, she said, "We have to turn back some of the creeping, un-Pennsylvanian and sometimes un-American traits that are coming into some of our politics." The remarks were tape recorded when expressed, but apparently not well prepared, because when challenged by a conservative reporter from Pittsburgh (Mrs. Kerry’s home base) about what she meant by “un-American”, she denied she had said “un-American”. Did she ad-lib that remark and then not remember her exact words?
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My friend and co-founder of the Expansionist Party of the United States, the late Stanley Hauser, once quipped (approximate quote), when asked what he had just said, “How do I know? You think I listen to that crap?” Ordinary people don’t have to remember their exact words. Presidential candidates, and their wives, do.
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Mrs. Kerry cannot both bemoan a lack of civility in politics AND tell a reporter to “Shove it” in the same appearance — nay, same campaign. Yes, there may be people who tick you off, and there was a history of confrontation between the Pittsburgh-based “right-wing rag” whose reporter she rebuked and Teresa H.K. that made her less patient than the situation called for, but if Mrs. Kerry is not to be the quiet, dutiful wife who sits by and merely looks adoringly at her man, she has got to be consistent. If she’s a fighter, let her fight. But fighters shouldn’t pretend to be peacemakers. Indeed, aren’t Democrats indignant that Dubya wants to pose as both a “war president” and a peacemaker?
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Moreover, if you go too far in a heated moment, apologize for it once you've calmed down. Campaigns do need to be more civil. Governor Schwarzenegger should have apologized for his "girlie-men" remarks; Mrs. Kerry should have apologized for her "Shove it" remark. Why not a handshake between the two, with mutual apologies to the public and a vow to be more civil hereafter?
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Mrs. Kerry’s background contrasts favorably with that of the unaccomplished little wife Laura Bush. For one thing, she’s (white) African!, having been born Teresa Simões-Ferreira in Portuguese Mozambique. She speaks five languages, graduated from one of South Africa’s best universities, was married to the late Senator John Heinz (yup, another John, but that one a Republican!) and oversees the Heinz Philanthropies. She passed up a chance to run for Heinz’s Senate seat after his tragic death in an airplane crash in 1991.
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(Curiously, the first article on Senator Heinz's death that I looked at in researching this post contains this quote calling him a “peacemaker”:

"He was the peacemaker of the Republican Party," one state Democrat said. "Heinz was able to keep the conservatives at bay and the party in the mainstream." Now [1991], the Democrat said, he expects the Pennsylvania Republicans to swing to the right.

Alas, that observer was right. John Heinz was one of the most liberal Republicans in the Senate. Now, Pennsylvania is (mis)represented by one of the most retrograde of Senate Republicans (which is very backward indeed): Rick Santorum, an antigay bigot who is at the forefront of the Republican Radical Right but who, because his state is not nearly so regressive as he is, often mouths nice platitudes about race, the poor, etc., that belie his arch-conservative politics.)
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Returning to Mrs. Heinz, she shared many of her late husband’s views but did not want to run for his Senate seat. She instead took up an active role in steering a course for the Heinz Philanthropies and pursuing her own enthusiasms (e.g., the environment) thru private activism.
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By contrast, before she married Dubya, Laura Bush was a public-school teacher — an admirable occupation, to be sure, but it does not compare to overseeing and guiding the work of philanthropies that have assets of $1.3 BILLION. Everything of any importance that Mrs. Bush has done (minor initiatives in the area of childhood literacy, mainly) came to her as a byproduct of her husband’s position. Mrs. Kerry inherited her first husband’s enormous wealth, to be sure. She did not create it. But she apparently plays a real and active role in the Heinz Philanthropies, whereas Laura Bush is only a part-time, nominal leader of her charities.
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I hope Mrs. Kerry can rise above the pettiness and nastiness she displayed last Sunday and will use her five languages to get her husband’s message out. Who knows? Maybe she’ll even visit the large Portuguese and Brazilian community here in Newark USA. (Responsive to “Covering for Teresa”, commentary by Eric Fettman, New York Post, July 27, 2004)
- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 1:29 PM