Heinz Kerry blew it

Teresa Heinz Kerry blew it yesterday in an interview with USA Today when she said, "...I don't know Laura Bush. But she seems to be calm, and she has a sparkle in her eye, which is good. But I don't know that she's ever had a real job--I mean, since she's been grown up.''

Heinz Kerry later apologized, saying that she had forgotten Mrs. Bush had once worked as a teacher and librarian. "There couldn't be a more important job than teaching our children," she said in a statement. "As someone who has been both a full-time mom and full-time in work force, I know we all have valuable experiences that shape who we are. I appreciate and honor Mrs. Bush's service to the country as first lady and am sincerely sorry I had not remembered her important work in the past.''

But as Bush adviser Karen Hughes pointed out, the apology actually made things worse "because she left out the very important real job of a mother.''

Memo to Ms. Heinz Kerry: Being a feminist doesn't mean acting like an insensitive man. Much as we disapprove of Mrs. Bush (mainly because of whom she sleeps with), we disapprove more of ideologies that fail to acknowledge the real work women do.

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?flok=FF-APO-1131&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20041021%2F1200517215.htm&sc=1131