Shove Story

This editorial page was very hard on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for calling Democrats in the state Legislature “girlie men.” We took no position on Vice President Dick Cheney’s much more vulgar suggestion to Sen. Patrick Leahy about how the senator might spend his free time. Now comes Teresa Heinz Kerry, who on Sunday provided desperately needed grist for the mills of commentary at this week’s Democratic convention by telling a journalist to “shove it.” Clearly there is something bigger going on here than we originally had hoped.

With only 15,000 journalists in Boston to analyze its multifaceted complexity, there is no wonder that key points about the Heinz Kerry episode have been overlooked. First is the startling fact that the victim was not just any journalist but an editorial writer. True, he is from the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, a scurrilous right-wing scandal sheet. There may be no other newspaper in America where the job of producing opinion is more superfluous. But he is an editorial writer all the same -- a brother under the skin to all of us who toil in the vineyards of considered views.

It is one thing for the masculinity of California politicians to be called into question, or for the vice president to remind a senator about the importance of stretching exercises. But in the opinion of this editorial page, there is nothing to be gained by insulting an editorial writer -- even one who makes his living insulting you. In fact, it’s unconstitutional. Or it should be. Heinz Kerry actually used three different weapons of rhetorical destruction. The day before “shove it,” she accused unnamed opponents of “un-American traits.” (Then she foolishly denied having said it.) “Un-American” is a uniquely American insult, and just the right thing for a political convention, where almost everything is declared to be uniquely American. Britons don’t accuse one another of being “un-British.”

But Heinz Kerry didn’t settle for un-American. She also called her unnamed enemies “un-Pennsylvanian.” This went too far. Many of us feel that we are insufficiently Pennsylvanian, but we don’t wish to be reminded of this. We do what we can. We buy Quaker State motor oil. We remind ourselves that Pittsburgh is the one on the left. But let’s face it: We can never be as Pennsylvanian as a woman who owns a huge chunk of the state.