Heinz-Kerry sticks her foot in her mouth!

John Kerry's wife is at it again. She said Laura Bush never worked a day in her life then had to recant saying she forgot Ms. Bush worked as a teacher and librarian.

BRING BACK HILLARY!

 

right, and she also killed a guy with her car.

 

This was simply an accident, Tom. There was no malice! She was barely 17 at the time. It was a tragic accident, that's all! She didn't see a stop sign.

Can you honestly tell me you have never run a stop sign or red light?

 

No, I have NEVER killed anyone. Of course, if it were me, I would probably be arrested. Most of the time it doesn't matter if it was an accident. If you run a stop sign and someone dies, it is called manslaughter.

Who cares if Mrs. Bush was a teacher and librarian. Who cares is Theresa Kerry worked either. None of them are running for office.

 

Yes it was an accident. It's not clear, however, whether she was driving recklessly or not. No one really knows the story. The boy she killed was alone. Laura Bush had a passenger. She apparently did run a stop sign and broadsided the other car.

So it was an accident - just like Ms. Kerry's faux paus, though a much more serious one.

Maybe we can drop this whole line of commentary then?

 

I guess the laws are different in TX. In California it is pretty clear. If you kill someone while driving an automobile and it is determined that you were driving carelessly (or recklessly - and yes, running a stop sign definitely qualifies for driving recklessly), it is called involuntary manslaugher. A felony.

No matter how it is sugar coated over time, a person is still dead.

I wonder Jimmy - how would you feel if it were your son that was killed? Would you feel so bad for the first lady then? I wouldn't.

 

nonpartisan observing of THK

Having been left partially disabled by a drunk driver, I'm *still* not sure of the relevance here of Mrs Bush's car-killing another teenager decades ago. Adlai Stevenson shot somebody to death at a party (by accident) and nobody minded among the Dems or threw it in his face among the GOP.

I saw Teresa Kerry at a campaign appearance at a nature center in Rye, NH, last night on C-Span. She hardly seemed a firebrand; wooden or subdued would be closer to the mark. She read a bunch of her husband's positions like a schoolkid, stiffly reciting the points from a notebook or file card.

I do not know if the Kerries maintain separate residences, but Mrs Kerry talked constantly about her and the Heinz Foundation's various environmental good works in the Pittsburgh area, referring repeatedly to Pgh as home. With all due respect to her late husband Sen. Heinz, you never would have known she has any ties to Massachusetts.

Now I am sure that Tom57 can handle these observations without venomizing. I have no interest in trashing Mrs Kerry. Having heard all this fiery stuff, but never having heard or seen her on TV at all, I was curious. What I did see looked like someone fairly uncomfortable with the political shtik. I don't like her quoted comments at all, but I rather felt sorry for her.

Call it sexist, as I'm sure someone will, but this trashing of Mrs Bush and Mrs Kerry strikes the old Balkanoid as unchivalrous, ill-mannered, and politically irrelevant--and which woman is "worse" has exactly nothing to do with that conclusion.

 

I think that THK's comments do have some political relevance.

Kerry is trying to position himself as the champion of the middle class in the face of Republican privilege. But then THK rather sarcastically (does the woman have any facial expression besides a bored looking scowl?) disses mothers, teachers and librarians. (At least that's how the Republicans are going to spin it.) Those may be modest professions indeed, compared to philanthropist, but they are professions that the middle class can identify with.

If she gets tarred with the disdainful rich-woman stereotype, it's going to play directly against her husband's message. She needs to be more careful about the impression that she's putting out.

 

Mr. Engineer: I have never had a child killed by anyone but did have a 29-year old brother killed by drug dealer. I forgave him year's ago, hold no grudges or ill will towards him and have prayed for him.

Uncle Janko: Didn't know about your accident and subsequent partial paralysis. I am sorry to learn this.

THK just doesn't look emotionally stable to me, I am sorry. I have posted before there appears to be some kind of disconnect between her and her husband. There doesn't seem to be any closeness, emotional attachment, or mutual affection. The President and Ms. Bush, on the other hand, look deeply in love, mutually attracted to each other, and sincere in the presentation of their relationship to the general public.

Bill Dyson: The Kerry's continue to do and say anything to win this election from Mary Cheney, to dissing professions and working moms, to lying about Social Security, the GOP suppressing the black vote, etc. It's shameful, downright shameful.

 

Re: nonpartisan observing of THK

Gee thanks, Janko, for that vote of confidence.

Why is having a separate residence a problem? Her connection to MA is clearly through her husband.

You have no interest in trashing THK, yet you refer to her as a school kid, and that you feel sorry for her. Is there something pitiable about her? Let's not trash her; let's just feel sorry for her. I don't see it.

To Jimmy: how is it that THK doesn't LOOK emotionally stable? By looking at her do you feel she is psychotic? paranoid? schizophrenic? suffering delusions? Are we playing armchair psychiatrist from our living room again?

 

Well, Tom57, you flunk. I thought you were capable of refraining from venomizing. Silly me. You misrepresent what I said, or else you didn't read it carefully in your eagerness to be

I did not criticize the Kerries for having separate residences. I said explicitly that I didn't know if they do. My point was that Mrs Kerry didn't sound like she was connected to Massachusetts but sounded as though all her ties were to Pittsburgh. Given the Kerries' wealth, they may have more than one residence, and I could not care less who spends whose time where.

I did not refer to her as a schoolkid; I said she recited from a list in the stiff manner of a schoolkid.

I felt sorry for her because she did not appear to be enjoying that particular campaign op. I am not a Darwinist or an Objectivist. To me, feeling sympathy for someone is not "trashing" them. As a public speaker by profession, I tend to notice speakers' demeanour when I observe them.


This side of Stakhanovism and Kraft-durch-Freude, it is not a crime to be unhappy. This side of makeover TV, it is not a capital offense to look sad, and this side of brute aestheticism, it is not a crime to be imperfect in one's appearance or demeanour.

So if poor Mrs. Kerry (?) must be perfect in order not to be trashable--by her husband's partisans, no less--she's got a lot bigger problem--not of her own making, begorrah--than nostalgia for Pittsburgh or reciting in a clunky way. If observing these things and expressing a bit of Mitleid is trashing somebody, why don't we just declare all speech a hate crime unless it flatters our own personal furies 100%?

I still wish both Mrs Bush and Mrs Kerry well, and if there were a Mrs Nader it would extend to her, too.

Oh, and by the way, some of Dr Clifton's credentials are in the areas of counseling and psychology. He just might know what he's talking about.

 

Re: Re: nonpartisan observing of THK

Tom,

As an American citizen who is reasonably educated I, like any other American, have the freedom to state an opinion about anyone. This was not any professional diagnosis or statement. It was merely a feeling/belief based on observing human behavior for years, just like any other American.

I am certain you have made similar comments in your life, have you not? Have you never referred to anyone as "nuts?"

I have a friend, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, with a regionally accredited MSW degree working on a Ph.D. in social work from an RA school, who emailed me tonight and called Bush a sociopath.

I didn't jump on her for playing therapist. I viewed her comment as one from an American citizen who stated her belief/feeling/opinion.

Just because one has some professional credentials doesn't negate one from stating opinions as a regular American citizen just like anyone else.

I have a life outside of my professions and don't always speak as a professional but as a regular American citizen just like you.

 

I read about the Heinz-Kerry comment in today's paper, together with the gracious response by Laura Bush. Your quote (and those I heard on broadcast media) is inaccurate, and when looking at the Heinz comment in context it appears to be a compliment.

 

To Janko: I don't think I was venomizing, though I certainly recognized your original invitation to do just that.

Now THK's residence is not an issue. I couldn't agree more. I have no idea why you raised the issue then (?).

As for the school kid issue, you're splitting hairs. Your comment clearly had a pejorative ring to it. Now you seem to be defending her right to be sad and awkward and uncomfortable. In a thread that was created to "trash" Ms. Kerry (“there she goes, putting her foot in her mouth again”, or some such nonsense), I'm sure you can see how an observer might view your comments as "piling on".

So I get it now. You're a champion of THK. You think she's just peachy. Your comments, were either completely benign, or they were complimentary, in that they confirmed her "humanness." I am suddenly the villain for insisting on perfection, and not allowing people to be human. That was an artful switch. I will call that a “Jankeroo” from now on. Nevertheless, it seems to me there would have been easier ways to say all that, if that's truly what you meant.

To Jimmy: yes, I have casually referred to people as "nuts". I think there was something a little less neutral about your comment. It seems to me there is a huge leap from observing that THK doesn't seem especially close to her husband (when tv cameras are bearing down on her) to concluding that she is "emotionally unstable."

And yes, say what you want. You now seem to be defending your right to make baseless comments. Certainly that's your right. You should qualify them as baseless, or as a joke, however.

Based on what you and Janko have “observed”, perhaps we can conclude that poor Ms. Kerry is an awkward, sad, and emotionally unstable woman. I’m sure she would be quite interested in those conclusions – that is, after she stopped laughing.

 

It would be nice to see her laugh every now and then.

 

I actually thought you were calmer than another poster.
I was wrong.
You're so busy having your o-word that you can't or won't read accurately.

Nothing but worship, apparently, is anything but "trashing" Mrs. Kerry.
That does make me feel sorry for her,
*especially if Sen. Kerry wins*,
because that all-or-nothing polarization is bitchy hysteria, not loyalty,
and will turn against her on some unforeseeable dime.

 

Bill Clinton wants in at the U.N.

Word out today on several newcasts is the President Clinton wants to be Secretary-General of the United Nations. Just think of all the groupies he can molest in that job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No chance however, it's an Asian's turn.

 

Not even close

Not even close. It happens all the time (tboning used to be the most common cause of fatalities) and I've never seen anyone arrested that wasn't also drunk. If I had entered an intersection a fraction of second earlier in 1981, my then wife and our unborn daughter would have been killed by a drunk driver instead of just hurt. I hope it never happens to you or one of yours. Sickening...

 

As he pointed out later in the thread, he has to CLAIM that he was saying this based on his opinion as a citizen, not as a professional. Otherwise, it would be unethical. And surely Jimmy would never do anything unethical. <insert degree mill joke here>

 

Re: Not even close

Maybe it depends on the state you live in. Back in the late 60s, in Pensylvania, a person jumped off a freeway overpass into traffic and was hit and killed by by a co-worker of mine. He was not arrested; but he was charged with man slaughter and subsequently had a couple heart attacks, before being acquitted by a court.