Shove It!

Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode CCCXXXVIII

'Shove It,' Heinz Kerry Says to Journalist.

Teresa Heinz Kerry urged home-state delegates to the Democratic National Convention to restore a more civil tone to politics, then minutes later told a journalist to "shove it."

"We need to turn back some of the creeping, un-Pennsylvanian and sometimes un-American traits that are coming into some of our politics," the wife of Democratic candidate Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) told fellow Pennsylvanians on Sunday night at a Massachusetts Statehouse reception.

Minutes later, Colin McNickle, editorial page editor of the conservative Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, questioned her on what she meant by the term "un-American," according to a tape of the encounter recorded by Pittsburgh station WTAE-TV.

Heinz Kerry said, "I didn't say that" several times to McNickle. She turned to confer with Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and others.

When she faced McNickle again a short time later, he continued to question her, and she replied, "You said something I didn't say. Now shove it."

Note the words "liberal" and "conservative" in that AP story.

Er... um... actually, note the word "conservative" in that AP story. Funny, how AP feels it necessary to identify what's conservative, but not what's liberal.

WTAE has more.

Comments made by Teresa Heinz Kerry following a pre-Democratic National Convention event are eliciting plenty of response Monday afternoon.

Heinz Kerry, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, urged home-state delegates from Pennsylvania to restore a more civil tone to American politics in a speech Sunday night.

"We need to turn back some of the creeping, un-Pennsylvanian and sometimes un-American traits that are coming into some of our politics," Heinz Kerry said during a reception at the Massachusetts Statehouse.

Minutes later, in an exchange that was captured on tape by Channel 4 Action News anchor Scott Baker and his photographer, Heinz Kerry told Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reporter Colin McNickle to "shove it."

McNickle, the Trib's editorial page editor, had asked Heinz Kerry exactly what she meant by the term "un-American." Heinz Kerry said "I didn't say that" several times, then turned to speak with Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and others. When she faced McNickle again a few minutes later, he continued to question her. She replied, "You said something I didn't say. Now shove it."

"This was sheer frustration, aimed at a right-wing rag that has consistently and purposely misrepresented the facts in reporting on Mrs. Kerry and her family," Heinz Kerry's spokeswoman, Marla Romash, told Baker.

Kerry, speaking in Orlando, Fla., where he was to hold a town hall meeting Monday, told reporters, "I think my wife speaks her mind appropriately."

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-New York, also defended Kerry's wife Monday.

"I think a lot of people would say, 'You go, girl,'" Clinton said.

The Trib released a statement backing McNickle Monday afternoon.

"Colin McNickle did just what any good reporter does — he asked questions. And the question he posed in this instance was legitimate," said the statement by Editor Frank Craig. "The tape of Teresa Heinz Kerry's speech shows she used the word 'un-American,' even though she denied it. It is unfortunate that she ruined what was an otherwise good message by resorting to exactly the type of tactics she was criticizing."

Before the encounter with McNickle, Heinz Kerry criticized the tenor of modern political campaigns, without being specific.

"I remember a time when people in political parties in Pennsylvania talked to one another and actually got things done," said Heinz Kerry, whose first husband, Republican Sen. John Heinz of Pennsylvania, was killed in a plane crash in 1991. "We have to go back to those days when we can do things properly, for the people need it."

"My prayers for you, for me, for the country, for the world, are that we keep this at a high level, with dignity, with respect and with a great idealism and courage that took our forefathers to build this great nation," she said.

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Watch the video, available at the link above: you can see & hear Heinz Kerry saying "un-American" then denying at least five times that she had said it — accusing McNickle of putting words in her mouth!

I think this is a very revealing episode: Heinz Kerry is accustomed, I gather, to employing the term "un-American" — but only when sympathetic reporters and photographers are around, or none at all.

Colin McNickle has a fledgling weblog covering the convention. His columns are archived here.

See also "An Outbreak of Blindness", George W. Bush and (or?) Conservatism, and Socialism? It's Everywhere!

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 07/26/04 06:21:16 PM
Categorized as Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode.