Kerry's wife tells reporter to "shove it"

BOSTON (Reuters) - Minutes after telling her husband's supporters to restore a more dignified tone to politics, Teresa Heinz Kerry told a reporter to "shove it."


In a reception on Sunday in Massachusetts, the wife of Democratic candidate Senator John Kerry told Democratic Party delegates from her home state of Pennsylvania there needed to be a change in American politics.


"We have to turn back some of the creeping, un-Pennsylvanian and sometimes un-American traits that are coming into some of our politics," she said. Morning television shows broadcast the remarks on Monday morning.


When a reporter from a conservative Pennsylvania newspaper, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, pressed Mrs. Heinz Kerry what she had meant by "un-American" she said repeatedly, "No, I didn't say that, I didn't say that."


She then turned away only to return moments later. "You said something I didn't say, now shove it," she said, pointing her finger at the reporter.


Asked about Mrs. Heinz Kerry's comments, the Kerry campaign said in a statement: "It was a moment of extreme frustration aimed at a right wing rag that has consistently and almost purposefully misrepresented the facts when reporting on Mrs. Heinz Kerry."