Posted on 06/15/2004 4:43:57 PM PDT by El Conservador
WASHINGTON - Teresa Heinz Kerry says anger, not ideology, prompted her to become a Democrat. The wife of Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites), the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, says her emotion stemmed from the way the Republican Party, to which she had pledged allegiance, treated Democratic Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia in 2002.
Cleland, who lost both legs and an arm as an Army captain during the Vietnam War, lost his re-election bid in a bitter campaign against then-Rep. Saxby Chambliss. The GOP had raised questions about Cleland's patriotism because of his position on legislation to create the Department of Homeland Security. Cleland supported the concept behind the department, but insisted that a workers' rights provision be part of the bill.
Heinz Kerry, in an interview to be broadcast Tuesday on the "CBS Evening News," says Cleland's status as a triple amputee is enough to prove his patriotism.
"Three limbs and all I could think was, 'What does the Republican party need, a fourth limb to make a person a hero?' And this coming from people who have not served. I was really offended by that. Unscrupulous and disgusting," she said, her reference being an indirect one to President Bush (news - web sites) and Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites).
Neither Republican served in Vietnam. Bush served stateside in the Texas Air National Guard, and Cheney received five student deferments from service during the war.
Kerry volunteered to serve in Vietnam and earned three Purple Hearts, and Silver and Bronze stars for his efforts commanding a swift boat on the Mekong Delta. Earlier in the campaign, opponents of Kerry had raised questions about his military service and whether he deserved the military honors.
Heinz Kerry had been a registered Republican until Kerry, her second husband, announced his bid for the White House. Her first husband, Republican Sen. John Heinz of Pennsylvania and the Heinz prepared foods heir, was killed in a plane crash in 1991. She inherited a fortune estimated at more than $500 million.
In the interview, John Kerry is asked about criticism of his wife, who has a reputation for being blunt and outspoken.
"When it's silly stuff, and a lot of it is incredibly unfactual, I get angry about it," he said.
Asked for three words to describe his 65-year-old wife, who is five years his senior, Kerry said: "Saucy, sexy, brilliant."
She responded: "I'm cheeky, I'm sexy, whatever. You know, I've got a lot of life inside."
___
A liberal interest group will begin airing a new television commercial Tuesday in four battleground states that calls President Bush "a failure of leadership" and criticizes Vice President Dick Cheney's ties to Halliburton.
MoveOn.org's political action committee will spend about $1 million over a week, a hefty amount, to run the 30-second ad in Missouri, Nevada, Ohio and Oregon.
The ad accuses Bush's administration of giving Cheney's former company no-bid contracts to work in Iraq (news - web sites) "on a silver platter."
"Then," the ad says, "the Pentagon (news - web sites) caught Halliburton overcharging $61 million for gasoline. Worse, they billed over $100 million dollars for meals for our troops that they never delivered. And George Bush is still doing business with them."
Steve Schmidt, a spokesman for Bush's re-election campaign, said: "This is another incredibly misleading ad from an organization completely outside of the mainstream of American politics."
Separately, The Media Fund, another Democratic group, ran new radio and newspaper ads in Kansas City, Mo., criticizing his record on health care and prescription drug costs. Bush visited the state Monday.
___
Associated Press Writer Liz Sidoti contributed to this report.
___
On the Net:
Kerry campaign: http://www.johnkerry.com
MoveOn: http://www.moveon.org
A halfabillionaire probably finds it hard to believe that a US Senator would consider union work rules much more important than the defense of the United States.
Just look up her donations record. She went heavy for Democrats starting in 1996, before the events she claims provoked her choice.
Even the idiot's wife can't come up with a positive reason to explain her own version of a flip flop. Is it all anger and hate all the time with these people? Or is it that even the wife couldn't find anything within her husband to explain her switch?
didn't matter how many limbs good ole max lost...he turned into a liberal idiot.
She's an incredibly STOOPID woman. She isn't sexy, she isn't cheeky, she isn't intelligent, she's STOOPID!
It would be criminal for a person like this to become first lady. How is Flipper doing on his search for the next wealthy Mrs. Kerry? He has to be drooling over Hilton.
They don't back up her claim.
After all, we couldn't have the press saying all those bad things about Republicans if the Democrap candidate's wife was one, now could we?
This article is full of documented lies. And the reporter needed help writing it? As the concluding references indicate, this whole piece of pitiful propaganda is straight from the pages of johnkerry.com and moveon.com.
Who needs reporters when you can just print the Democrats' press releases?
Pulling a Jeffers reveals one of two facts. Either the person is technically insane, or, they were a Fifth Columnist all along. Expose them! Out them! Purge them!
You mean she is a bald faced (botox faced) liar and doesn't have a care in the world about being called on it anywhere else but on Freerepublic?
Gee.....It's obvious she couldn't buy any class with her millions....
Now - her perspective on Cleland -- proves she is also stupid...
It was NEVER about patriotism with Cleland -- it was his leftist voting record that the folks in Georgia disliked and FIRED HIS ASS.
Her own words and actions make a strong case that she is also a LIAR -- like her husband and his party..
She was giving money to the loony left for years before the "Cleland defeat".....
Semper Fi
Not only is she STOOPID, but she's incredibly weird.
Oh boy, not that lie again.
NOBODY seriously questioned Cleland patriotism, but just because you are a veteran that does *not* give you a free pass from being questioned on your policy positions, including foriegn policy - got that Kerry???
Look, rich wife of a RINO-type Republican who is a real Europhile, not even raised in this country. What are the odds she would turn out to be a limosine liberal???!?
99%?
It's grenade not granade and all grenades that aren't inert training devices are "alive". Cleland may be a liberal but this is the first time I've heard he was drunk, do you have a source for this bit of disinformation?
Kerry married her for the Heinz money, and she married him for the power base she'd get to promote her (and his) liberal agenda. She is stupid...it was so clearly never about Cleland, for one thing, and for another thing, that whole "Cleland is unpatriotic" schtick is such a canard!!!
[aside to Tacis - I do think the "Cleland was drunk" charge was also proven to be a canard...it's here somewhere! and there's plenty else to say about Cleland, so let's forget that part either way...IMHO, mentioning it, whether false or true, just makes us look as nasty as some of the the lib. spinners and liars...FReegards! ]
I'm sure John Heinz is happy he's dead and away from this witch.
what did she have to say about the msm demanding dna from Trig, or accusing her of CAUSING his Down's syndrome?...or calling her kids druggies and sluts repeatedly...or calling Sarah herself a bad mother?
no.....we will hear no regrets about that crap?
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