<font color=blue><font size=4>'Shove it'<font color=black> still reverberating
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By Jennifer Harper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published August 3, 2004
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Teresa Heinz Kerry's <font color=blue>"shove it"<font color=black> phrase to a Pittsburgh editor was the most cited Kerry campaign message in the press last week -- mentioned 381 times in American publications, according to Factiva, a Dow Jones/Reuters company that tracks daily press mentions.
But the two words also brought death threats, insults and accusations upon Colin McNickle, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review editorial-page editor who vexed Mrs. Kerry by asking her to explain her claim that <font color=blue>"un-American traits"<font color=black> were emerging in politics.
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"I have learned about the power of a simple question,"<font color=black> Mr. McNickle said from his office in Pittsburgh yesterday, adding, <font color=red>"But no reporter should ever be afraid to ask a question." <font color=black>
Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign mottos did not resonate with the press, according to Factiva. <font color=blue>"One America"<font color=black> got 57 mentions, <font color=blue>"Hope is on the way,"<font color=black> 50 mentions and <font color=blue>"America can do better"<font color=black> just 21 by week's end.
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Mr. McNickle, however, was demonized after his July 25 exchange with Mrs. Kerry was caught on videotape by a local TV station, then picked up by the news channels and replayed endlessly.
"What did you mean?"<font color=black> Mr. McNickle asked the wife of the Democratic presidential candidate after she told Pennsylvania delegates that <font color=blue>"un-Pennsylvanian and sometimes un-American traits"<font color=black> were sullying politics.
Mrs. Kerry denied she had used the phrase, then snapped, <font color=blue>"You said something I didn't say. Now shove it."<font color=black>
Last night, Mrs. Kerry's bluntness was on display again. A Bush supporter was chanting <font color=red>"Four more years! Four more years!"<font color=black> through a bullhorn at a Wisconsin rally while Mrs. Kerry was speaking. She departed from her text to say: <font color=blue>"They want four more years of hell."<font color=black>
Mr. Kerry gave her a long hug and a big smile when she finished speaking. <font color=blue>"She speaks her mind, and she speaks the truth,"<font color=black> the candidate said.
In the aftermath of the <font color=blue>"shove it,"<font color=black> Mr. Kerry supported his wife, as did the Democratic National Committee, which called Mr. McNickle's paper <font color=blue>"a right-wing rag,"<font color=black> and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.
Mr. McNickle denied he had been rude.
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"I didn't bully her. I didn't set her up. She stumbled all by herself,"<font color=black> he said. <font color=red>"She began her remarks about her husband's vision, then went off on a tangent."<font color=black>
But Mr. McNickle swiftly became the target of partisan ire, inspired by what he termed the <font color=red>"DNC's liberal attack machine."<font color=black>
In hundreds of e-mails and telephone calls to his office and home, and even on the street, Mr. McNickle's life was threatened. He was called a <font color=blue>"Nazi"<font color=black> and a variety of obscene names, and had death wished upon him.
In a Boston Globe interview, singer Patti LaBelle advised Mrs. Kerry to <font color=blue>"pimp slap"<font color=black> Mr. McNickle; liberal columnist Molly Ivins suggested he had inappropriately <font color=blue>"touched"<font color=black> Mrs. Kerry; and former Baltimore Sun columnist Jack Germond told CNN that Mr. McNickle <font color=blue>"was not a legitimate newspaperman."<font color=black>
He responded in a Tribune-Review column Sunday, explaining he was only seeking an example of <font color=red>"un-American traits"<font color=black> from Mrs. Kerry, but <font color=red>"I got a finger in the face and was told to 'shove it.' I have been told worse things by more important people."<font color=black>
A mention of Mr. McNickle's column in Editor & Publisher was picked up by the Drudge Report yesterday, ultimately reversing the firestorm of criticism, Mr. McNickle said.
<font color=red>"Today, I got 1,700 e-mails in four hours, most supportive, saying I'd done a good job,"<font color=black> Mr. McNickle said.
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"But you know what?" <font color=black>he pointed out. <font color=red>"Mrs. Kerry never answered my question." |
