The Teresa Factor
By Liz Cox Barrett, AlterNet. Posted June 16, 2004.
Outspoken. Wealthy. Powerful.
These are the adjectives de rigeur in any news profile of the 65-year-old
wife of Senator John Kerry, as one press outlet after another this spring
weighs in on the momentous question: Teresa Heinz Kerry, burden or asset?
Heinz Kerry is hardly the first recipient of this kind of attention.
Virtually every auditioning First Lady in recent decades has been the
focus of this media-manufactured debate. During the 1992 presidential
campaign, the media made hay over the so-called "Hillary Factor," as
opponents of Bill Clinton waxed eloquent about the perils of admitting an
independent, successful woman with an activist bent into the White House's
East Wing.
This year, it is Heinz Kerry's turn.
As a prominent and successful woman, she's the kind of political wife that
draws heightened scrutiny during a political campaign. "It happened to
Geraldine Ferraro's husband, to Hillary Clinton, to Arnold
Schwarzenegger's wife," says Cliff Shannon, the former chief-of-staff for
Senator John Heinz. It may explain why Laura Bush got off relatively easy.
She recently told USA Today, "I don't think I got as much attention when
we ran last time as [Heinz Kerry] has." And she's right. The last two
women to vie for first spouse, Bush and Tipper Gore, had both long since
left their careers -- as a librarian and a photojournalist,
respectively -- by the time they hit the campaign trail in 2000.
No current career, one less stone for political opponents to unturn.
Hillary Clinton's liberal activism was the focus of Republican attacks in
1992; this year, it is Heinz Kerry's philanthropic work. She is the chair
of the Howard Heinz Endowment and the Heinz Family Philanthropies, and a
board member of the Vira I. Heinz Endowment, reportedly overseeing assets
of over one billion dollars.
Leading the attempts to give her the "Hillary treatment" thus far is the
Capital Research Center (CRC), a conservative, Washington-based
organization that studies the spending of nonprofits. Grant Oliphant, who
served as Senator John Heinz's press secretary and is now executive
director of the Heinz Endowments, says that the CRC has "aggressively
tried to drum up interest in the notion it would be a conflict of interest
to be an active philanthropist and also be First Lady."
In April, CRC published a report titled "The Heinz Foundations and The
Kerry Campaign" which concluded ominously:
The United States has never had a wealthy spouse overshadow its
president. But Teresa Heinz Kerry leads and funds philanthropic
foundations and she sits on the board of directors of highly political
nonprofit groups that receive her foundations' support and that can
advance or frustrate the policies of her husband, should he become
president. That's unprecedented political power. More public scrutiny of
Heinz Kerry's public role is in order. While there is still time.
The reality is that people on both ends of the political spectrum have
publicly lauded Heinz Kerry for her philanthropic activities in western
Pennsylvania. According to the Boston Globe, her foundations have poured
nearly $200 million into an array of environmental causes, including large
sums for cleanup projects in western Pennsylvania and a riverfront park in
Pittsburgh -- all of which have helped turn that region into an
environmental model for the rest of the nation.
Oliphant, who served as Heinz Kerry's speechwriter and spokesman, is
confident that attempts to paint her as an out-of-control liberal will
fail, if only because of her Republican background. "Teresa comes out of a
Republican past, she believes strongly in fiscal responsibility and sort
of a more open approach to social issues which was consistent with
moderate Republicanism for a long, long time," he says.
Contrary to what the CRC may claim, Heinz Kerry's strong support for the
environment is not part of her liberal agenda but dates back to her days
as a Republican senator's wife, when she reportedly helped persuade John
Heinz to support the 1990 Clean Air Act. In fact, Heinz Kerry was a
registered Republican until January 2003. And when her first husband died
in a plane crash in 1991, she considered making a run to fill his seat.
Myra Gutin, a professor of communications at Rider University in New
Jersey and the author of a book on first ladies, says, "I found it
fascinating that [Heinz Kerry] seemed to be a rather popular Republican
wife when she was married to John Heinz. And now she's being painted as
somebody ... a little bit out there, somehow untrustworthy."
Republicans have at times gone to ludicrous lengths to distort the image
of an opponent's wife in the past. During the 1992 presidential campaign,
conservatives "found an old article [Hillary had] written for a law
journal years before in which she said in certain cases children should be
emancipated. They translated that into [saying] she was anti-marriage,
anti-children." Gutin has no doubt that Heinz Kerry's words and actions
will be the target of such creative interpretation.
Apart from attacks by her husband's political adversaries, every potential
First Lady also has to grapple with the caricatured persona the media
creates for every major player in an election cycle. With Heinz Kerry,
journalists seem to have zeroed in on her tendency to be "candid" -- or
alternatively blunt, outspoken, or impolitic. "[Teresa] is forthright in
sharing her opinions. She really doesn't believe in beating around the
bush," says Oliphant. "In our culture which purports to want all of those
things for public figures it's supremely ironic to me that whenever
someone like that comes along they get the daylights beat out of them for
just those attributes."
According to conventional press wisdom, her candor combined with her
seeming foreign-ness (she was born in Mozambique and speaks
Portuguese-accented English) makes her seem a little, well, different,
which could be a thorn in her husband's side. Take, for example,
Newsweek's title of its May 3rd cover story: "Is John Kerry's Heiress Wife
a Loose Cannon or Crazy Like a Fox?"
Heinz Kerry has tackled the criticism head-on, often pointing out to
reporters that being outspoken is seldom viewed as a disadvantage in men.
She also told the Pittsburgh Post Gazette that as an immigrant she
relishes her freedom to be open in her adopted country:
If you say 'speaking your mind,' it can sound like I'm coming out to
make a point. But if you say 'enjoying your freedom.' it means I can say
something without going to jail or losing a job. I think that's something
that the press misses when they say, 'She's too frank, or she's too
honest.' I'm enjoying that. I'm enjoying the freedom.
Oliphant sees three factors at play in the negative attention received by
women in politics, particularly potential first ladies, today. "The first
thing that's changed -- and I'd say Hillary was the first to really be the
victim of it -- there are no limits anymore in terms of political
attacks," he says. Next is the Internet, according to Oliphant, which
makes it easy to launch disinformation campaigns against political foes.
Finally, there is our culture's ambivalent relationship with powerful
women. Much like Hillary Clinton, Oliphant says, Heinz Kerry "is willing
to stand up for things she believes in, speak out for things she believes
in and she has strong credentials as a professional and wants to be taken
seriously even if she's the president's wife." An expert on women in
politics who did not want to be quoted by name, agrees: "Women who are
strong leaders and a little out of the mold or role, it's like: target.
[Teresa's] in a very contentious environment, so it's going to be
no-holds-barred."
However, while the CRC will undoubtedly continue to call for "more public
scrutiny" of Teresa Heinz Kerry, any attempt to give her the "Hillary
treatment" will be that much more difficult, if only because her admirers
include conservatives like Shannon. As he puts it, "She's smart, complex,
has a lot of resources, and to her credit has spent the larger part of her
life either raising three good children or devoting herself to causes she
believes in. If that's a signal of evil, well, then I say may we have more
of it."
Liz Cox Barrett is a reporter with CampaignDesk.org.
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| User: "dreamwalker" |
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| Title: Re: Teresa Heinz Kerry: The Teresa Factor |
22 Jul 2004 11:34:12 PM |
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"Dr. Blunt" <ufocalypse@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:cdpg2u02mri@enews1.newsguy.com...
The Teresa Factor
By Liz Cox Barrett, AlterNet. Posted June 16, 2004.
Outspoken. Wealthy. Powerful.
You forgot nuts.
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| User: "Dr. Blunt" |
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| Title: Re: Teresa Heinz Kerry: The Teresa Factor |
23 Jul 2004 03:13:33 PM |
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"dreamwalker" <backfromthe@dead.net> wrote in message
news:60b14$41009547$40762881$19941@powerweb.allthenewsgroups.com...
"Dr. Blunt" <ufocalypse@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:cdpg2u02mri@enews1.newsguy.com...
The Teresa Factor
By Liz Cox Barrett, AlterNet. Posted June 16, 2004.
Outspoken. Wealthy. Powerful.
You forgot nuts.
If that' true, you two have something in common.
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| User: "Michael Johnathan McDonald" |
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| Title: Re: Teresa Heinz Kerry: The Teresa Factor |
23 Jul 2004 03:15:27 PM |
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"dreamwalker" <backfromthe@dead.net> wrote in message news:<60b14$41009547$40762881$19941@powerweb.allthenewsgroups.com>...
"Dr. Blunt" <ufocalypse@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:cdpg2u02mri@enews1.newsguy.com...
The Teresa Factor
You forgot nuts.
How can he it is his modus operandi. lol.
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