DAVID SKOLNICK \ Politics Heinz Kerry wrong in attacking newsman

I don't think my opinion of Teresa Heinz Kerry is a secret.
It was less than two months ago that I wrote that she is "dull, seems uninterested in campaigning, and mumbles or starts a sentence and never finishes it to the point that you can't understand most of what she says."
Admittedly, I formulated that opinion after speaking to her only twice. Maybe it takes a while for her to warm up to people. But during her two visits this year to the Mahoning Valley, I kept waiting to hear from the woman described by the national media as intelligent, interesting and outspoken.
I saw that side briefly during her second visit to the Valley on June 1.
The first part of that visit was a complete disaster for Heinz Kerry. She was at the public library at Austintown for a roundtable discussion about the impact of serving in the military had on local families. Reporters couldn't make out anything the potential future first lady said. She rarely finished a thought and spoke so quietly.
After the roundtable, she held a press conference and showed a dry wit and answered the tough questions in complete sentences.
This leads me to her "shove it" comment Sunday to Colin McNickle, an editor at the ultra-conservative Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, one of her hometown newspapers that has spent years trashing her and her husband, John Kerry.
Heinz Kerry made the comment after speaking to the Pennsylvania delegates to the Democratic convention in Boston. McNickle questioned her about a statement she made: "We need to turn back some of the creeping, un-Pennsylvanian and sometimes un-American traits that are coming into some of our politics."
Heinz Kerry denied making the "un-American traits" comment even though it was recorded by several news outlets at the meeting. When asked to expand on it, Heinz Kerry repeatedly denied saying it, asked if McNickle worked for the Tribune-Review, and after he said he did, she told him to "shove it." [As I mentioned earlier, the two times I heard her speak, I couldn't understand most of what she said. I'm somewhat surprised the lengthy "un-American" quote was caught on tape.]
I suppose it could have been worse. Vice President Dick Cheney told U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont to "f--- yourself" a few weeks ago. During the 2000 campaign, Cheney and President Bush had a conversation, not realizing it was picked up by a microphone, in which Bush told Cheney that a reporter was a "major league a--hole." Cheney responded, "Big time."
The Pittsburgh newspaper has repeatedly targeted her and her husband, often in a mean-spirited way. While that isn't professional and shouldn't be tolerated, Heinz Kerry's angry comment at McNickle was inappropriate.
He simply asked her to expand what she said a few minutes earlier. For Heinz Kerry to repeatedly deny making the comment -- and by now, she must know she said it -- and then tell the editor to "shove it" is completely out of line. It would be nice if she had any short-term memory.
If she wanted to relay a message to Richard Mellon Scaife, the newspaper's publisher and a right-wing extremist, she could have told him to tell his boss to "shove it."
So that was the excitement before the Democratic convention began Monday. Actually, there was little excitement at the convention.
As Craig Brown of Salem, a Democrat delegate to the convention, astutely commented before leaving for the event: "It's really just a big pep rally."
Brown did leave out that the delegates and convention participants spend as much -- or more -- time eating and drinking as much free food and liquor as they can stomach at various parties. This convention is completely staged as if it were a TV show or movie.
Political conventions used to mean something years ago. The delegates would choose a presidential nominee, or there would be some intrigue about naming a vice presidential nominee, or controversial issues would get discussed.
Those days are long gone. The major networks have figured this out, relegating their convention coverage to one hour in prime time.
I stayed up until 11 p.m. Tuesday to hear Heinz Kerry speak on PBS. Her speech was a snoozer. I kept falling asleep during the latter portion of her speech. She didn't say much, but at least she spoke in complete sentences.