First-class lady
by RONNIE POLANECZKY
polaner@phillynews.com
FOR MONTHS, pundits have been saying that this country may not be "ready"
for someone like Teresa Heinz Kerry to be first lady.
She's too outspoken, they say. Too frank. Opinionated enough to make Hillary
look demure.
To boot, she's filthy rich, which might not sit well with voters struggling
to pay the mortgage.
Teh-RAY-zah the terrible
Plain-living middle America, they say, might not tolerate such a "volatile"
mix in a first lady.
Well, I guess Iowa and New Hampshire are about as plain-living as this
country gets. And both states just voted overwhelmingly for Heinz Kerry's
husband, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, in their respective Democratic
caucuses and primary.
Which makes a logical point in the mind of Heinz Kerry's spokeswoman,
Christine Anderson.
"Teresa was all over both states, campaigning for John. If she didn't 'fly'
with middle America, don't you think the people of Iowa and New Hampshire
would have let us know that?" she asks.
Even if it is from a paid mouthpiece, Anderson's point is interesting, and
it raises a question:
Could the pundits - gasp! the pundits?- be wrong?
Could America be ready for a first lady like Teresa Heinz Kerry, after all?
Years ago, of course, the question would've been irrelevant. No one cared
about presidential wives, at least not enough to let them influence the
vote.
If they had, Abraham Lincoln - whose wife, Mary Todd, was a sad loon - never
would've made it to the White House.
In recent memory, though, when it's hinted that a candidate will seek this
country's highest office, all eyes turn to the spouse (and, oh, do I long
for the day when that spouse is a potential first man).
And the masses wonder, "Is she 'too' anything?"
She'd better not be, lest voters be critical of - or threatened by - her
intellect, looks, career, demeanor, checkbook, lineage or sense of humor to
the degree that they vote for one of the other husbands, instead.
"The campaign process is hard for any candidate's wife, because she's so
closely scrutinized," says Washington Post writer Ann Gerhart, author of "The
Perfect Wife: the Life and Choices of Laura Bush."
"If she's someone like Mrs. Bush, who by temperament is not inclined to be
very outspoken or extroverted - which is not to say she's not intelligent or
complicated - it may be easier for her. But if her natural personality is
more outgoing or forceful, she may be more harshly judged."
In other words, the more a first lady reveals of herself, the more there is
to critique.
In the case of Teresa Heinz Kerry, the material is copious and intriguing.
First, there are her looks. Slender and fine-boned, she exudes an earthy
glamour and looks younger than her 65 years (she is rumored to "approve" of
Botox).
Then there is the voice - low-pitched, sophisticated, with an exotic, hard-to-place
accent.
Mostly, there is the demeanor:
• Intellectual - Campaigns, she says, "are the graveyard of real ideas and
the birthplace of empty promises."
• Candid - Saddam Hussein, she said, "was a creep."
• Wry - "When I need [a face-lift], I'll get it."
• Playfully sexy - She would like to be "in a foxhole" with Kerry.
How this makes her "volatile" is beyond me. But I'm no pundit.
Born and raised in Mozambique to a Portuguese doctor and his wife, she met
first husband John Heinz while studying languages at the University of
Geneva (she's fluent in Portuguese, French, Spanish, Italian and English).
He said his father "made soup." Eventually, she learned he was from the
Pittsburgh-based Heinz family, of pickle and ketchup fame.
They moved to the States, married, and had three sons while John Heinz
became a Pennsylvania Republican senator.
She may have remained a relatively unknown political wife if not for the
events of April 4, 1991. As Philadelphians vividly recall, her husband of 25
years perished that day in a plane crash into a Lower Merion schoolyard.
Overnight, Heinz Kerry became a single parent and director of the $1.6
billion Heinz endowments, which her husband had controlled.
She declined a chance to fill her husband's seat and, 20 months later, also
passed on a run for his office. At the time, she told the Daily News that
she'd been so consumed with the well-being of her sons and of the endowments
that she had yet to properly grieve her husband's death.
"I still need time to integrate the wounded me and the strong me and make it
whole again," she said.
Heinz Kerry threw her support behind Arlen Specter, but not before publicly
criticizing his treatment of Anita Hill, thorn in the side of Supreme Court
Justice Clarence Thomas.
She later dropped jaws by referring to candidate Rick Santorum as "Forrest
Gump with attitude."
Her comments showed the public what friends knew well: She was no shrinking
violet.
"She has always been smart, dynamic and thoughtful," says her friend of 30
years, Laurada Byers, wife of slain Daily News columnist Russell Byers. (Byers
credits Heinz Kerry's support for helping her through Russell's murder. "She
knew more than anyone what it was like to lose a spouse suddenly and
violently.")
"It is in her personal and professional nature to delve deeply into issues,"
Byers says, "to understand their nuances and to be very straightforward with
what she thinks.
"But she's also one of the most compassionate and kind people I've ever
known. When people meet her, they walk away saying, 'Holy baloney, she's
amazing!' " says Byers. "I'm surprised when the press calls her 'opinionated'
when she makes a strong, thoughtful statement. If a man said it, they'd call
him 'smart.' I think it's a male thing, really."
Professionally, Heinz Kerry is a star in the world of philanthropy. The
Heinz Endowments, of which she is director, is one of the world's largest
charitable organizations. It has supported broad funding for initiatives
related to the environment, women's health, education and children's rights.
She also founded the Heinz awards - annual $250,000 grants recognizing
leaders in their fields - in her husband's memory.
"I don't make money in my office," she has said. "I give it away."
Certainly, Heinz's wealth was what most raised eyebrows when she began
dating John Kerry, who was a decorated Vietnam vet when he entered office.
She was wealthy. He was ambitious. Tongues wagged.
They had met years before, through her first husband, and become
reacquainted at a dinner after John Heinz's death.
Kerry offered her a ride home. On the way, they visited the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial, which The Widow Heinz had never seen.
Sparks flew.
"He was a person of the world in addition to being an American in the best
sense," she told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about that evening. "And I
felt very comfortable with him. Plus, he was pretty charming, even if he was
a little skittish in the beginning."
They married in 1995. In accepting his proposal, Heinz, a lifelong
Republican, told Democrat Kerry that she would "go down the aisle," with him
but wouldn't "cross the aisle."
Heinz, though, became a Democrat, last year. She was also advised to begin
using the name Kerry, which she airily dismisses as "a political thing."
She's not airy about her marriage, though.
"We both believe in the ability to overcome a lot of pain and to be joyous
again and not to dwell on the 'down,' but to use those lessons and those
experiences to strengthen you," she told the Journal-Constitution of their
partnership. "He did it by coming back [from Vietnam] and fighting to stop
the war. I do it by going on to do the work that I do - part of it is a
continuation of my late husband's work because of the endowments. But there
is joy in that."
To say she'd make an unusual first lady is an understatement.
"She's just not your typical candidate's wife," says G. Terry Madonna,
director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Millersville
University. "There is nothing at all conventional about her. She's an
accomplished woman in her own right, with great wealth independent of her
husband and her own political connections.
"If her husband is elected, she'd be one of the most interesting first
ladies we've ever had."
I think so, too. It remains to be seen, of course, whether Teresa Heinz
Kerry is able to shed that "volatile" adjective that has been used -
inexplicably, in my opinion - to describe her.
To me, the word conjures images of a crazed Heinz Kerry crashing through the
White House west wing, threatening the staff with a broken Cristal bottle.
From what I can tell, though, what seems to make her "volatile" in pundits'
minds is that she speaks in sentences that don't sound drained of all life
by some public-relations handler.
It's downright bracing.
• Here's Heinz Kerry's take on the current White House occupants:
"The cynicism that has come up from this administration - from some of the
members, not all of them, but too many - is the most lethal weapon against
democracy that I have ever seen."
• On having a point of view:
"I'm a professional. I have opinions. You know, if I didn't have opinions,
I'd be a silly wit."
• On Al Gore's backing Howard Dean instead of John Kerry:
"Of all people, Al Gore should wait for the last vote."
• On taking her husband's last name:
"Politically, it's going to be Heinz Kerry. But I don't give a s---, you
know? There are other things to worry about."
• On her husband:
"You have in him a determined soul. You have in him a patriotic soul. And
I'd like to be in a foxhole with him."
Heinz Kerry says things that are memorable, impolitic, original and
absolutely refreshing. Plus, she can say them in five languages.
Is America ready for a first lady like that? I don't know.
