Kerry gives foes a few openings
News analysis by Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY
BOSTON — John and Teresa Heinz Kerry proved in the past week that even with the tightest choreography, there's always a chance they will say something that complicates their drive to win the White House.
Amid a series of feel-good events that would have made Cecil B. DeMille proud, Kerry said on national TV that he hadn't had time for a national security briefing on a new al-Qaeda threat. He praised celebrities who had made nasty, vulgar remarks about President Bush. His wife offered feminist musings at the North Carolina finale of the new ticket's "mainstream values" tour. And while voters wondered about John Edwards' experience and foreign policy credentials, the Kerrys talked about his good looks.
"He's better-looking in person than in photographs. Look at him, he's blushing," Heinz Kerry told about 25,000 people at a rally Saturday in Raleigh. Kerry delivered his usual line about what they have in common: "He was named by People magazine sexiest politician of the year. And I read People magazine."
Asked later whether he minded such remarks, Edwards told USA TODAY, "As long as it's done in a funny way, it's fine." His wife, Elizabeth, added, "I don't expect during the debates, for example, for that to come up."
The New York celebrity concert Thursday night was never supposed to be part of the Democrats' meet-the-ticket tour. It had been postponed from June because of Ronald Reagan's death. But the timing and crudeness of the attacks on Bush gave Kerry an opportunity for what's known as a "Sister Souljah moment." The phrase was born in 1992, when Bill Clinton admonished rap singer Sister Souljah for words he said were "filled with hate."
After various artists had called Bush a "cheap thug," compared him to a criminal and made off-color jokes about his name, Kerry said, "Every performer tonight, in their own way, either verbally or through their music, through their lyrics, have conveyed to you the heart and soul of our country."
The next day, Kerry's campaign manager, Mary Beth Cahill, said, "He does not approve of some of the remarks that were made last night." But she had no answer when asked why he didn't say so at the time.
The result: Kerry gave Republicans a talking point in the values debate between the two tickets and a handy fundraising tool as well. "The liberal left of Hollywood and the Kerry campaign got together for a star-studded hate fest," Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman wrote in an e-mail to supporters. "Help us fight these attacks by making a contribution today."
If the New York incident underscored Kerry's sometimes unreliable instincts, the Raleigh rally underscored his wife's reliable unpredictability. One minute she was talking passionately about why women with opinions should be called smart, not opinionated, "just like men." The next, she was saying she and Elizabeth Edwards keep track of dates "because women generally do those things, and the guys just think about big things."
The incidents may pass, along with Kerry's remark on CNN that the administration offered to brief him on the latest al-Qaeda threat, but "I just haven't had time." He got the briefing Sunday at his home here.
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