Heinz Kerry rebukes heckler; crowd cheer

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-05-2004
Heinz Kerry rebukes heckler; crowd cheer
147
Mon, 09-27-2004 - 2:10pm
Here's the orginial link: http://9news.com/acm_news.aspx?OSGNAME=KUSA&IKOBJECTID=36f146a1-0abe-421a-018e-f62f7c8edb48&TEMPLATEID=0c76dce6-ac1f-02d8-0047-c589c01ca7bf

PUEBLO, Colo. (AP) - A group of 600 Democrats crowded the 4H Auditorium at the State Fairgrounds Friday hoping to see for themselves whether presidential candidate John Kerry's wife was as outspoken and sharp-tongued as some have described her.

Teresa Heinz Kerry delivered for her supporters when she talked back to a heckler who implied her husband's a flip-flopper.

During a question and answer session, a young man demanded to know why Kerry voted to give Bush authority to attack Iraq but voted against an $87 billion appropriation bill to support the war effort there.

"Is that the kind of thing he would do as president?," the man asked.

Heinz Kerry sharply asked the man whether he had read the legislation that was voted on.

When he said no, she told him that Kerry had supported $60 billion in military appropriations for Iraq, but would not vote for the full $87 billion because he considered it a "blank check." Kerry was one of 11 Democrats to vote against the bill.

"And we knew they'd already given Haliburton millions in no-bid contracts," she snapped, referring to the company formerly led by Vice President Dick Cheney.

"If you want to say (Kerry) flip-flopped, just say so, don't try to hide," Heinz Kerry scolded.

The young man responsed with chanting "Four more years!" as he walked out of the auditorium. The partisan crowd's cheer of "Six more weeks!" quickly drowned him out.

Roberto Costales of Canon City liked the way she dealt with her heckler.

"Did you notice how she handled that one guy? I bet she doesn't back down from anybody," he laughed.

In appearances here and before a crowd of 1,700 in Fort Collins, Heinz Kerry echoed her husband's views about terrorism, national security, crime, health care and education.

She said the United States needs a different approach in the world.

"The way we live in peace in a family, in a marriage, in the world, is not by threatening people, is not by showing off your muscles. It's by listening, by giving a hand sometimes, by being intelligent, by being open and by setting high standards," she said at the CSU rally.

In Pueblo, Heinz Kerry sounded a similar theme, criticizing the Bush administration for sending warning signals to Iran about developing nuclear weapons.

"There are about 50 countries in the world that have the capability to build nuclear weapons. Are we going to attack them all?" she said.

Gina Maggrett, of Pueblo, liked what she heard.

"(She's portrayed) as this caustic person but I thought she was really warm and intelligent. A lovely person," she said.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 08-07-2004
Mon, 09-27-2004 - 11:00pm
THK said shove it to a person, not to an audience. That person was a reporter who asked her a question about the speech she gave & he misquoted her in the question, twisting her words & intent around.

I'm not familiar with the "idiots" or "scumbags" quotes, can you point these out to me?
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-23-2004
Tue, 09-28-2004 - 12:07am


She's got to realize that what she says to a newspaper reporter while on the campaign trail is being addressed to a public "audience". That's what I meant, but admittedly my wording was confusing. Sorry about that.

Here are links to the other quotes I mentioned:

http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/politics/9617461.htm

http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/3746644/detail.html

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-23-2004
Tue, 09-28-2004 - 12:10am
You know what you're right, I was ranting. I get frustrated and I shouldn't stoop. I think generalizing is no good. I just told someone else in another thread not to lower the level of discourse! As i said, i just get frustrated! I really have a difficult time understanding Americans who settle for lies- we have been lied to, repeatedly, by this administration. With the election so close I am thinking a lot about what I believe is best for our country. Surely both sides can understand that about the other. If I offended you I'm sorry.

About T.H.K., I don't know why it doesn't bother me that she said "shove it" ...but if she is calling people scumbags, well, true, that's no good (i missed that bon mot!) I think she did say something like "people who can't see that my husband's plan (for something-??) is better are idiots." and i remember laughing when i heard that, because it's something many of us Kerry supporters think about various issues but she just blurted it out! i do believe bush supporters think "idiots" applies to Kerry fans, and you are probably an exception! i just don't feel that it's a realistic concern to worry about in this election (how she will behave in front of dignitaries-- she is a worldly socialite who blurts things out every now & then, but she doesn't have tourettes syndrome! Oprah blurts things out sometimes but she also knows how to behave & curtsy & use the right fork when needed. Everyone is human & has many sides.) T.H.K.'s saucy side is hardly the important priority in our country this year, is it? What with the skyrocketing cost of healthcare, and the backward track Bush is on with the environment, and the huge deficit, and Osama on the loose, and the bungled Iraq war! Every politician has a 'loose cannon' in the family; there was patti davis and roger clinton and i recall a blonde party girl who recently stuck her tongue out at a photographer from a car in a presidential caravan...

I have to say: i simply don't believe you that most people who dislike H.R.Clinton dislike her for her policies. I sense a much deeper dynamic going on having to do with a word that rhymes with witch. I feel for her, I know that sounds odd. Because it must be lonely to be where she is professionally. Talented and intellectually intimidating and a woman. She spoke at length at my commencement and I found her to be incredibly sincere and undeniably intellectually brilliant. I didn't know that much about her, it was years ago, but she made an impression & I have tried to learn about her. I just have not been in the presence of too many people like that, where the brainpower is so evident, maybe a professor here and there and a genius boss I had once... but she was definitely in that category. And I must not have the same information as you have, to consider her dishonest (you said proven- can you? all i can think of are allegations). I think she's obviously a very good mom and I find her to be warm and funny in tv interviews. Anyway, whatever! She's not running. But as long as we are naming who we think is dishonest:

I find the dishonesty of the Bush administration appalling, before the campaign (IRAQ) and now in the campaign (www.factcheck.org). It upsets me that there are people out there believing him & Karl Rove, and the whole Neocon gang who have every reason to attack and lie, because the truth -- that we had no good reason to invade Iraq and send our brave soldiers to their deaths -- is appalling.

I do want to commend you for being calm and articulate. I agree-- it's impolite & disrespectful for me to assume that people who support Bush are all gullible. Honestly, it's SO difficult, in the face of facts, not to come to that conclusion. (We ask ourselves, 'what is up with that?' Must be gullibility! and when we ask someone with the view that Bush should be re-elected, my goodness the answers are so uninformed and flat-out bizarre! you strike me as an exception and you remind me an important lesson about the danger of thinking in generalizations.) Here's the thing: I don't even quite understand what you mean when you say you disagree/see the world differently. Do we actually disagree that he lied to the American people and to our allies, and that our soldiers are in Iraq dying, laying down their lives under false pretenses? These kids joined the military to defend our country (many just to get college tuition - no other options for them to get an education) but how are they defending us there?? We impeached Clinton for lying about sex (reminder: nobody DIED!) yet people want to reward Bush with re-election? HUH? My belief is that he is responsible for a tragic, dishonorable chapter in American history.

I find Bush dangerously misleading on many issues, for example: championing an unfair tax cut that has crippled the nation with debt, giving most of us a few hundred bucks while the wealthy benefitted obscenely more from his tax policy. Americans who made over $1 million in annual income got a cut of $112,925 on average, while I got a thousand bucks, and my retired parents got even less. Our National deficit is suddenly in the trillions! How irresponsible! When schools are crumbling and 35 million live in poverty, and 45 million Americans don't have ANY health insurance, we should re-elect him so he can continue this welfare for the wealthy? I am all for affluence & profit & wealth & comfort (I live quite comfortably) but look at the nation as a whole! There is a sneaky fiscal con game going on and working class Americans are getting screwed. Some say: "We had a war to pay for, it was urgent necessity" and to that I say: Nonsense. Bush misled us into war. I've said this in previous posts, but that's like telling my husband, when he sees our credit card bill, "Honey I know we talked about saving, but I suddenly needed a fully loaded Lexus, it was an urgent necessity!"


P.S. about tax cut B.S.



http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_32/b3845029_mz007.htm

http://www.natcath.com/NCR_Online/archives/011703/011703q.htm

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/08/16/politics/main636398.shtml

http://www.thebatt.com/news/2003/06/12/Opinion/Bushs.Tax.Cut.Fails.To.Provide.Relief.For.All-513887.shtml

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-23-2004
Tue, 09-28-2004 - 12:32am
http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/3746644/detail.html

I have no problem with T.H.K.'s use of the word scumbag in this context.

Were I her English tutor or her Press Secretary I might slip her a post-it note advising her to use "scoundrel" next time. But in general, I am not scandalized by this into questioning her husband's qualifications for president and I don't at all find this a quote that would make me change from voting for her husband, a decorated veteran with decades of experience in elected office, versus a draft-dodger who was drunk until he was 40 and then let himself be puppeteered by Neoconservatives who misled this entire country into war on false pretenses.

Speaking of the Neoconservatives who led us into war under FFFalse pretenses, don't FFForget, guess who had a FFFar more salty tongue, and lashed it at a colleague on the hallowed FFFloor of the United States Senate:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5352287/site/newsweek/

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-07-2004
Tue, 09-28-2004 - 7:05am
New Yorker Magazine Quotes Teresa Heinz Kerry Out Of Context

POSTED: 8:09 p.m. EDT September 20, 2004

UPDATED: 9:50 p.m. EDT September 20, 2004

PITTSBURGH -- The new issue of the New Yorker magazine contains a detailed profile of Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry.

One comment getting attention in the article is a claim that Heinz Kerry called her detractors "scumbags" during an interview last April with Channel 4 Action News anchor Sally Wiggin.

A check of that tape shows that while Heinz Kerry did use the word, it came in the context of discussing what her son Chris called the "noble art of public service."

"I believe there is a nobility in public service. I believe every citizen can be a public servant. And should be," said Heinz Kerry.

Sally Wiggin asked, "Do you think some of the nobility has gone out of public service?"

Sally Wiggin's Interview With Teresa Heinz Kerry, April 2004

More Video From April 2004 Interview

Heinz Kerry said, "Oh, there is a lot of scumbags everywhere. Not just in politics. In everything. There are a lot of immoral people everywhere."

The author of the New Yorker article was allowed by Heinz Kerry to observe the original interview as it was taped.

The magazine did contact Channel 4 Action News to confirm the quote, but the context in the final article gave different shading to the meaning of the remarks.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-20-2004
Tue, 09-28-2004 - 8:01am
<>

That's quite a quibbling defense of her. She said it in FRONT (in the presence) of an audience. Somehow because she said it to an individual, it's less of a public gaffe?!

********************************************************************

For those who need more of Terry Kerry's boners:

When Wiggin asked, "Do you think some of the nobility has gone out of public service?" the would-be first lady shot back, "Oh, there is a lot of scumbags everywhere. Not just in politics. In everything. There are a lot of immoral people everywhere."

What do you think the AP's reaction would be if Laura Bush said that? I mean, of course, after they'd get done bashing her for passing judgement on others with that ugly "immoral" word.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2004
Tue, 09-28-2004 - 10:31am
I shudder at the thought of that classless, trashy woman as our First Lady.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-07-2004
Tue, 09-28-2004 - 12:09pm
I'm not so much defending her as stating a fact. She was not speaking to an audience with a microphone. Why pretend otherwise?

What do I think would be the response if Laura said there are scumbags everywhere? I think she would be given a pass on it. After all, it is true. Or do you think there aren't scumbags everywhere?


Edited 9/28/2004 12:11 pm ET ET by allianor

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-20-2004
Tue, 09-28-2004 - 12:54pm
<< if Laura said there are scumbags everywhere? I think she would be given a pass on it.>>

LOL! By the "right wing" media, no doubt.

Cheney was not speaking to an audience with a microphone. Do you really think he's been "given a pass on it"?

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-23-2004
Tue, 09-28-2004 - 1:23pm
There's a lot to respond to in your post and I don't really have time for all of it, but just a couple of quickies:



None of the things she has said really bother me if they were said in a private conversation-who doesn't say things like that sometimes? What bothers me is her apparent lack of self control when she knows (or ought to, anyway) that should she be first lady she would be expected to conduct herself with a certain amount of decorum and tact. She's not really shown that she's capable of that, but I agree I don't think anyone ought to choose their president based on who he's married to. It can't help but be one small part of the total package, though.



I think it's just a tired old stereotype, and a kind of insulting one at that, the idea that Republicans don't like strong women, intelligent women. Olympia Snowe, Elizabeth Dole, Condoleeza Rice, Christine Todd Whitman, the list of intelligent, accomplished, outspoken women respected by Republicans(who, by the way, are often scorned by Democrats)is just as lengthy as those of Democrats. I do think that there are some who do not believe a first lady ought to be making policy-she wasn't after all, elected president. That doesn't mean we expect her to be demurely sitting around arranging flowers and baking cookies. But a lot of people, Democrat and Republican, want a first lady who is a bit classier than some of THK's remarks make her seem.

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