Right zooms in on Heinz grants Heinz Kerry's foundation work provide grist

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04067/281739.stm

Now that her husband, Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry, is locked into the Democratic presidential nomination, an assemblage of right-wing groups is gearing up to target Teresa Heinz Kerry, depicting her as a temperamental political spouse and financier of radical groups.

Some of the organizations, such as Citizens United and The Center for the Study of Popular Culture, previously took aim at former first lady and now Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Heinz Kerry, who inherited an estimated $700 million from her first husband, the late Sen. John Heinz, and who heads one Heinz family foundation and sits on the board of another, has faced increasing scrutiny from conservative groups. Her husband's emergence as the near-certain nominee now appears to have focused more attention on her.

"They've got to kill something that's strong," Heinz Kerry said of her critics. "What can I do? Nothing. I know who I am. My friends know who I am."

Some of the attacks are likely to come not from the campaign of President Bush, but groups on the fringes of the political campaign, where deeply personal attacks have become commonplace.

<snip>

Scaife's newspaper has long been critical of Heinz Kerry although Scaife's wife, Barbara Ritchie Scaife, is a friend of Teresa Heinz Kerry and donated $2,000 to the Kerry campaign. Scaife, Heinz Kerry said, "was fixated on my late husband first."

[Kagemusha]

1. So attacking candidates is illegal but wives are fair game.

The new rules according to the GOP.

Ugh.

[htuttle]

3. Families of Candidates, Former Ambassadors, Former Presidents...

...it's all the same to cowards.

[Hekate]

6. But Mary Cheney is off limits?

hypocrites

[DBoon]

18. Children

Chelsea Clinton anyone?

[yardwork]

2. I never understand why this kind of thing works.

I always hope it will backfire, but it's amazing what people will believe.

These right-wing hate groups are destroying campaigns in this country. It's gotten so hardly anybody wants to run, knowing what they and their families are in for.

[Mountainman]

4. Lets compare lives with Heinz Kerry and Jim Robinson

You know that freepers will start to attack her but each and every freeper and their leader is a peice of cow dung and she is a super human being.

[fearnobush]

5. I think that may be part of the "bring it on" message.

Teresa has a billion dollars to out smear them if she chooses to. She has said that she would spend every dime to defend her name if the Satanic Republicans attack her.

[demgrrrll]

7. I thought that was what I read too. I also thought I read that Rove

gave a hands off message to the flunkettes.

[SoCalDem]

8. Too bad she does not use some of her money

to buy some radio stations and newspapers..That would help more..

The "free" media that the rightwingers get is the beauty of their scheme.. They have plenty on money in reserve, but they get most of their "advertising" FREE, via slanted articles, bulk purchased "book drops", and 24/7 rightwing radio blather..

Our side must BUY coverage, and usually it's money spent to COUNTER stuff that's put out there to trash them by "free coverage".. They pay top dollar for a few spots that may or may not reach the public, but EVERY time they turn on their radio, they hear the bashing..

[Dogmudgeon]

9. No roadkill for Teresa H-K

Laura Bush ran down and killed an ex-boyfriend of hers.

Well, it's a president's wife. It's in the past. And now it's fair game. Right?

Somebody ought to mention to the Team Bush Screech Monkey Choir -- "the poo you fling may come back and poo on you."

--bkl
"The brake pedal, Laura, the brake pedal!"

[DBoon]

19. Got alink?

Haven't heard this one before.

[Crachet2004]

21. Prezactly!

I hate being this way...but Bush is using Laura in his campaign adds, which alone makes her fair game, IMO.

If they come after THK-and we know they will, their evil little spirits won't be able to resist-then they should be shown no mercy. Bushcos' wives, dogs, cats....whatever! All should be dragged through the slimiest mudholes we can find. We have most of the creative people on our side, right? We have more ammo and the other team is totally predictable! This should be easy.

I really do think she murdered that boy. And he evidently was her BOYFRIEND! This story should be in every tabloid in the nation.

And once America gets to know Laura, they will have to throw a bunch more campaign adds away.

[murielm99]

10. Screw this.

Just screw it.

My daughter has a grant from the Heinz Foundation. She is a grad student at CMU and a MUSICIAN.

So, they are going to pick on flute players, now? I am going to get my daughter to write a letter, detailing just how much that foundation supports the arts.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

11. Well

<I do believe she clearly will be an issue. Her and her financial resources and her corporate entities and donations -- all those things need to be looked at real closely," said David Bossie, a former congressional aide who now heads Citizens United, a conservative group that has kibitzed in presidential elections dating to 1988.>

Psst….David! Let you into a secret pal! The “financial resources and corporate entities and donations of Cheney and Bush are much more interesting.. I think you’ll find that your own side has much more in terms of skeletons in closets in terms of ““financial resources and corporate entities and donations”

< "She's well known to be a difficult woman to deal with," Brown said. "I would encourage you to look up some old Heinz staffers. I think she'll undergo the same kind of scrutiny that Hillary did because she's been so active.">

This from the person supporting a President who has been on the record threatening and abusing a reporter in front of his family in a restaurant, who has been known to engaged in put downs of his staff in the Oval Office, who threw his glasses across the room and smashed a family portrait and who once challenged his father to a fight. I think someone who is difficult to deal with is a lot closer to home.

<She mentioned criticism from Rush Limbaugh, the conservative radio host. "He says I have unruly hair," she said. "So I must be an unruly person."?

Even if it were true that she had unruly hair (and I think she’s very pretty IMO), that isn’t a crime. Unlike say, what you are being investigated for Rush


The convenient blindness of these people to their own indiscretions or the indiscretions of the people they support never ceases to amaze me

[spinbaby]

12. I'm surprised we haven't seen the smears already

She's "foreign"--such an easy target to a group that's willing to smear Kerry for being "French looking."

[salin]

13. hmmm David Bossie "former <discredited> congressional staffer"

seems to forget to qualify that this "former staffer" (sounds so reputable) was fired in disgrace by embarassing boss Dan Burton (hard to embarass a man as nuts as Burton, btw) durng the myriad of investigations during the impeachment era.

[cap]

14. theresa must be neutralized...

her contributions to environmental interests are in direct conflict with the Bush-Cheney energy policy...

So cleaning up the coal mines is radical???

Western PA environmentalism is a hotbed of radicalism????

Bad move by the right... Theresa can now spend her money defending herself and publicly promoting her causes.

Bring it on!

[mobuto]

22. Heinz Kerry has more money than Richard Mellon Scaife

So by all means, please bring it on!

[Robb]

15. The best part of this story for me was

learning that Barbara Scaife is a contributor to the Kerry campaign! Oh, that's gotta burn Richard!! :D

..."When mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy."

[MarinCoUSA]

16. THK can kick ass and push back real good.

IMHO

About 2 weeks ago NPR ran a short interview with her and when the reporter started veering into the non substantiative fluff realm THK was 100% push back and "don't-bullshit-me".
Sorry no link to interview. I was very impressed and have repeated my observation to friends since then.

..am DEFINITELY looking forward to seeing her collect a sack of snarky/stupid reporters' heads during the campaign.
Bring it on THK!

The conventional fluff seems to be that she's Heinze=rich which completely leaves out the kid who spent time growing up in Africa as the minister's daughter.

Probably no DUI-dead boyfriend in the closet either.

[Duck90MPH]

17. Will the Tides Center support of Rukus be an issue?

Rukus, as you may know, is a bit on the wild side.

[IndianaGreen]

20. This is a total smear!

I may not like John Kerry, but Teresa Heinz is another matter altogether. She has used a transformational leadership style in guiding the Heinz Family Philanthropies and the Howard Heinz Endowment to do good around the world.

In a 1995 interview to Utne magazine, Teresa Heinz said that her prolific philanthropy was a way of "fixing things" that is more effective than political campaigns, which she described as "the graveyard of real ideas and the birthplace of empty promises."

Teresa Heinz challenged her own organizations to go beyond the scope of what they have done before, and she used the influence she had by virtue of her chairmanship of the Heinz philanthropies as a springboard for other public service projects.

Teresa Heinz was responsible for several new initiatives that pushed the outside of the envelope. In 1996, Teresa Heinz oversaw the creation of the Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement (WISER), an independent nonprofit organization to educate women about retirement issues. WISER was created to deal with the serious challenges that women workers face in our society, among them one finds that half of all women work in low wage jobs that offer no pensions, and two out three working women earn less than $30,000 a year.

Another of Teresa Heinz noteworthy initiatives, and one that could really be described as being "out of the box," was the Heinz Plan to Overcome Prescription Drug Expenses (HOPE). The main thrust of the HOPE plan was to protect Massachusetts's seniors against catastrophic costs. The HOPE Plan relied on a "combination of cost sharing, pharmacy management, and volume purchasing." In a letter to Massachusetts Governor Paul Celluci, and to the President of the State Senate and the Speaker of the House, Teresa Heinz recognized the challenges and the opportunities that the HOPE Plan presented:

"There may be provisions contained in the HOPE plan about which some (even I) have doubts or with which they may take specific exception. But I think everyone can agree that consideration of the HOPE plan will present the Massachusetts legislature with a unique opportunity and a significant challenge.

The opportunity is to be the first state in the nation to offer comprehensive prescription drug coverage for all persons 65 and over."

It should be noted that the HOPE Plan was passed by the Massachusetts legislature in 1999, while a more modest proposal to provide catastrophic coverage for seniors that was passed earlier by Congress, was repealed after a well-orchestrated campaign by special interest groups.

[Duck90MPH]

24. Can you point out the smear?

All I got from the story was some right wingers pointing out where the money is going and to what groups. What was supposed to be a smear?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

23. Wow, here's some info on the "radical" Tides Foundation

http://www.tidesfoundation.org/giving_opportunities.cfm

[rocktivity]

25. If those conservative groups need something to "scrutinize"

May I suggest Enron, Worldcom, The Carlyle Group and Halliburton?

:headbang:
rocknation