The Heart of Politics One Woman, Two Senators and Presidential Ambitions: The Washington Tale of John Kerry and Teresa Heinz
By Mark Leibovich
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 2, 2002; Page F01
Teresa Heinz is getting up a full head of rage while her husband, Sen. John Kerry, fidgets.
They are in the living room of their Georgetown home, where Heinz has lived ever since her late first husband, John Heinz, came to Washington in 1971 as a Republican congressman from Pennsylvania. In the front entrance, the first things a visitor sees are two framed photos of Teresa Heinz cuddled with tall, smiling men with big heads of brown hair: In one is John Kerry, in the other John Heinz.
She still calls John Heinz "my husband" and doesn't always correct herself -- "my late husband" -- even when Kerry is around. She still wears the blue sapphire engagement ring that Heinz gave her.
But John Heinz's enduring presence in Teresa's life is best revealed when someone slights his memory. Which, at least indirectly, is why she and Kerry are now in mid-bicker...
When Kerry is asked about the nightmares that haunted his sleep for years after he returned from Vietnam, he shrugs. "I don't think I've had a nightmare in a long time," he says. But then Heinz begins to mimic Kerry having a Vietnam nightmare.
"Down! Down, down!" she yells, patting her hands down on her auburn hair.
"I haven't gotten slapped yet," she says. "But there were times when I thought I might get throttled."
Kerry quivers his right foot and steers the discussion to the counseling programs he has supported for Vietnam veterans. Asked if he has been in therapy himself, he non-answers. "It doesn't bother me anymore, I just go back to sleep."
Heinz presses him. "Not therapy for the dreams, therapy for the angst," she says, and looks quizzically at him, awaiting an answer. Kerry shakes his head "No." This is not your father's political couple, though you wonder, at this moment, if Kerry wishes it were...
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Source: washingtonpost.com |
