Camps spar over Romney word choice [Hillary tries to alter English]

It means unsuitable, indecorous, and it's viewed by many as an archaic, ill-fitting corset of a word. When Mitt Romney described Shannon O'Brien's attacks on him in Tuesday night's debate as ''unbecoming,'' he raised the ire of her female supporters, who used the description to rally their cause yesterday.

Teresa Heinz, a philanthropist and wife of US Senator John F. Kerry, told a crowd of some 750 women at an O'Brien fund-raiser yesterday that Romney would be surprised at how many ''unbecoming women'' were gathered for the event at the Fairmont Copley Plaza hotel.

US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, a New York Democrat, told the crowd that years ago the ambitions of women who wanted to vote or run for public office were described as ''unbecoming.'' Clinton drew roaring applause when she said she found Romney's comments ''unbecoming.''

That single word opened a new front in the campaign as O'Brien's supporters seized upon it to reintroduce the question of gender in the final days of the race. Romney, campaigning with US Senator John McCain, defended his word choice as gender-neutral.

In Mass. Gov. Race, Supporters of Shannon O'Brien Accuse Rival Mitt Romney of Gender-Stereotyping

I think it's O'Brien that's stereotyping by assuming that Romney's use of this gender-neutral word is automatically meant to be a sexist slur!

I think it's O'Brien that's stereotyping by assuming that Romney's use of this gender-neutral word is automatically meant to be a sexist slur!

You are right!

She is acting like a very touchy, very paranoid feminist.

Shannon O'Brien (Mrs. R. Emmet Hayes), Hillary Rodham-Clinton and Teresa Simões-Ferreira Heinz-Kerry have chosen to view Romney's words as an attack on women in politics.

O'Brien must tell all on husband's lobbying
By Joan Vennochi, 7/11/2002, Boston Globe, (excerpt from Google cache)

JUST LIKE John Henry Williams, the son of the late baseball great Ted Williams, state Treasurer Shannon O'Brien would love to put a close family member on ice. She cannot.
O'Brien, the current frontrunner in Democratic gubernatorial primary race, is married to R. Emmet Hayes, a former state representative and, as of last December, a former lobbyist. O'Brien would prefer to leave the description of her husband at that. She cannot.
The voters have a right to know about her husband's business,

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