Posted on 09/20/2004 2:10:50 PM PDT by L.N. Smithee
In an interview of Teresa Heinz Kerry ("The Candidate's Wife," written by Judith Thurman) posted September 20, 2004 at NewYorker.com, we learn a little more than we previously knew about Ms. Kerry's habit of letting insults fly without restraint or apology.
Her angry retort to a reporter from a perceived "right-wing" Pittsburgh newspaper ("...now shove it!") is the stuff of Presidential campaign legend. Courtesy of Ms. Thurman, we now have this additional nugget:
[Heinz Kerry] dismissed voters skeptical of her husband’s health-care proposals as “idiots,” and, in a television interview with a Pittsburgh anchorwoman, employed the word “scumbags” to describe some of her detractors.
Thurman tries to soften the blow by writing the following: "I doubt that she knows the literal meaning of 'scumbag,' but perhaps, after forty years in America, nearly thirty of them as a political wife, observing how the flaws and contradictions of a personality as complex as hers are melted down for ammunition by the other side, she should have learned it."
This latest revelation of a profane Teresa outburst reminded me of the Democratic National Convention speech given by 12-year-old Ilana Wexler, the Little Orphan Annie lookalike from Oakland, CA who created (with the help of her parents) Kids For Kerry, a website that encourages minors to urge their parents to vote for John Kerry.
Teresa Heinz Kerry herself called Wexler to invite her to Boston for the DNC confab. The most memorable moment of her ballyhooed speech (replayed ad nauseam) was her shot at Vice President Cheney, who had in days previous to Teresa's "shove it" comment said something in the realm of "F--- you" or "F--- yourself" to Senator Patrick Leahy. From the speech:
(BTW: The irony that the person who brought her to Boston to snipe at the Veep on national television herself was guilty of a vulgar outburst was lost on most of the correspondents.)
Our next goal is to have a petition for "National No Name-Calling Day," a day that the candidates don't say anything negative about one another. When our Vice President had a disagreement with a Democratic senator, he used a REALLY BAD word.
If I said that -- If I said that word, I would be put in a "time-out."
I think he should be put in a time-out...
(snip)
...Kids need positive role models in politics. And our Vice President deserves a longgggggg time-out.
So, when I heard that Ms. Loose Cannon 2004 was at it again, calling critics of her hubby "idiots" and "scumbags," I thought to myself, I wonder what excuse Little Miss Ilana would make for her loose-lipped friend? So I went to the website, and the first thing I saw was this:
The link goes to a petition page that signers can use to send a message to the following: President George W. Bush, Senator John Edwards, Senator John Kerry, Vice President Richard Cheney. It reads as follows:Sign the No Name Calling Petition. Keep campaign ads and the candidates positive!
"National No Name Calling Day". Please sign our petition asking candidates to stop negative attacks and endorse National No Name Calling Day on September 21, 2004. Imagine a day where insults take a vacation and candidates focus on what they're going to do to help our country. Together, we can send a powerful message and call for a time out on name calling and attack ads. Our leaders should be positive role models and act in ways that inspire us to better ourselves and our country. With your help, WE CAN HAVE A VOICE TODAY!!!There is something wrong with a system where attack ads and personal insults are considered the norm because they "are effective." Let's restore respect in voting and get more people to believe their voice matters. Please sign our "National No Name Calling Day" petition today.
Then use the "tell a friend" link to encourage everyone you know, all across our country, to join us and take action. Name calling has no place in our future!
I trust the irony will again by missed by the Dan Rathers in the MSM.
However, to be fair, Teresa is not targeted in the petition. This could have been deliberate; maybe Ilana realized that trying to keep THK's mouth in check was a lost cause.
Arf!
My 4 year old sees a pic of her and calls her EVIL
What will Dr Phil say?
Maybe little Ilana has something to say about TeRAYzah's idea to "let them run naked" in the Florida disaster area.
Sybil?
A_R
(hey, your hand is sweaty!)
PS. Is this story really sappy and stoopid or am I over-reacting?!)PSS. Teresah needs to be locked up after her mouth is washed out with soap.
I sure wouldn't want to be the person to ask. But consider that Ilana and her parents are from the East Bay, home to Barbara Lee and the University of California at Berkeley. Do you remember Cal's "Naked Guy" from the 90's, who only wore sandals strolling around campus and in classes?
John F'n Kerry: "No, but I have thought about cutting all your f*****g legs off at the knees." (response to a question "Sir, have you ever considered getting a bigger car?" Men's Journal August 27, 2002)
John F'n Kerry: "Five thousand years ago, Moses said, 'Hitch up your camel. Pick up your shovel. Mount your ass. I will lead you to the promised land.' Five thousand years later, Franklin Roosevelt said, 'Light up a Camel. Lay down your shovel. Sit on your ass. This is the promised land.' Today, George Bush will lay off your camel, tax your shovel, kick your ass and tell you there is no promised land." (4 October 2003 DNC Fall Meeting)
Oh bleep, they changed the links to those quips.
Does the name-calling ban include the term 'war criminals'?
Oh, please. My personality is complex. My husband's personality is complex. 9 out of 10 Freepers are complex. This doesn't give anybody a license to sling obscene insults and never get called on it.
-Foxfire4, who's getting a complex
It does if you have a billion dollars. In the immortal words of Alfred E. Newman, "What? Me worry?"
Well, I never knew it until Dan Burton called Clinton one and the major media had one of their patented conniption fits that someone was being mean to their golden boy and they explained its meaning for about a week solid until it was ingrained, not to mention blown all out of proportion (no pun intended but I'm not inclined to go back and rewrite). Where the hell was Teresa during that nonsense?
Nevermind. Thurman is wrong to doubt Teresa knew the meaning, and it doesn't matter. Anybody knows it's a derogatory term and that's the point, not the media's obsession with the literal origin of the term.
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