You might have missed this, but a few days ago Teresa revealed on National Public Radio that the recipe she submitted to Family Circle magazine for its election year cookie bake-off was not hers.
Mrs. Heinz Kerry had originally submitted a recipe called Yummy Wonders, but, according to Family Circle, its test kitchen said the recipe did not work. When the magazine called her press office and asked if there had been a mistake, the press office sent the pumpkin cookie recipe without consulting her, said her press secretary, Marla Romash.
Whether she would have fessed up had the cookies been tasty is a matter that the historians will have to resolve.
I’m sure there are those who regard playing fast and loose with cookie recipes as of great/no (take your choice) importance, but what may be of some significance is the hint of an underlying paranoid style that pops up from time to time around Kerry’s inner circle. Consider:
In an interview on National Public Radio that was broadcast yesterday, the cookies came up in conversation and in the direct, unvarnished style that people have come to expect, Mrs. Heinz Kerry said: “Somebody at my office gave that recipe out and, in fact, I think somebody really made it on purpose to give a nasty recipe. I never made pumpkin cookies; I don’t like pumpkin spice cookies.”
Direct, unvarnished … blame of others (in this case her own staff) for attempting to bring her down.
This is not pretty, but it’s also not unique. Remember Kerry’s response after his skiing, er, accident?
When asked a moment later about the incident by a reporter on the ski run, Kerry said sharply, “I don’t fall down,” the “son of a b*itch knocked me over.” [The alleged son of a bitch was the Secret Service agent protecting Kerry at the time.]
And now they’ve done it again. Did you see the pictures of Kerry in the funny looking “bunny suit” on his recent NASA visit? A “dirty trick,” said his campaign. (Link via InstaPundit).
There was no “dirty trick” behind the photographs of Sen. John Kerry wearing the blue anti-contamination suit while touring the shuttle Discovery on Monday.
As political pundits and comedians pounced on the pictures of Kerry in what outsiders might deem a goofy-looking costume, the senator’s campaign aides alleged the pictures were not supposed to be released publicly.
Not true, said NASA. Government photographers routinely snap pictures of visiting dignitaries.
….
Furthermore, NASA spokesman Bill Johnson said the Kerry campaign asked that the pictures be taken of the senator’s unusually up-close tour of the Discovery and that processing be expedited so reporters could have them.
The pictures have prompted chuckles and jokes among political pundits covering the Democratic National Convention in Boston because, to people unfamiliar with shuttle operations, the head-to-toe light-blue suits look goofy.
No, what looks goofy, even mildly paranoid, is this habit of attributing everything that goes a bit wrong to the “dirty tricks” of others, presumably the all-powerful and ubiquitous “Republican attack machine” whose tentacles extend from NASA all the way into Teresa’s kitchen.
UPDATE [30 July 4:30PM]
Comments below and other email remind me that I left out a few examples of Kerryian excuse-mongering:
It will certainly be interesting when Sen. Kerry’s divorce papers appear.
It seems that like Stalin the Kerrys see “anti-party wreckers” everywhere they turn.
‘Anti-party wreckers’? Have the Kerrys been listening to Hillary too much again?
I mentioned to my coworkers yesterday that Kerry should have walked on stage wearing the NASA bunny suit. The man needs to be able to laugh at himself and inject some real humor into his campaign. It would have worked better than that limp-wristed salute.
You forgot the interview where Kerry insisted that the “Benedict Arnold CEOs” line in his speech was foisted upon him against his will by his speechwriters. This guy is incorrigible.
Yeah, as was his “I support Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton or James Baker as an American Peace Emissary to the Middle East…” line that he promptly took back, blaming his speechwriters for a line he read in the earlier drafts he approved.
Loser.
Uh, I stand corrected: paranoid loser.
Yeah, did you see him pointing at his catcher and blaming him for having missed the ball when he tossed the first pitch in the dirt on Monday?
Some one should let Kerry know there is medication for that now.
WHINERS
I don’t like whiners. Never have. And I don’t like people who blame everything bad that happens to them on other people. Never have. They’re whiners. And I don’t like whiners. So….. What happened when a certain famous guy fell…
RE: Kerry/NASA Photo flap –
Perhaps the Kerry regime doesn’t want us to see their early designs for THE MALE BURQUA !!!!
For the pitcher to blame the catcher is just offensively presumptuous… what did the catcher do? Exhale violently? Who would believe this? I guess that’s what comes from living in a bubble of sycophants who will never challenge you on anything. Kerry really got under my skin with that snowboard thing. Even if he had said, “I didn’t fall down.” But no, “I DON’T fall down.” Whuu? Hoss, either you are lying or you aren’t going fast enough. Probably both. And it seems reflexive, like Mamma T denying something she had just said IN A VIDEOTAPED PUBLIC ADDRESS! Hey, Bush might be a big dummy but he SEEMS to understand the rudiments of cameras, audio tape and the Congressional Record.
Mrs. Heinz Kerry had originally submitted a recipe called Yummy Wonders, but, according to Family Circle, its test kitchen said the recipe did not work.
I guess Teresa should have been a little more suspicious when Hillary gave her that recipe to submit to Family Circle.
Kerry was playing chicken – I’m voting for this to call your bluff.
Oh, yeah, that’s what we need for the CIC
Kerry’s statement about being fooled by Bush reminds me of Johnny Depp’s character in The Pirates of the Caribbean. Depp keeps telling people what he is going to do, they don’t believe him, and are then surprised when he does exactly that. (There are, however, certain other stylistic differences between Bush and Depp.)
I’ve heard of vast right wing conspiracies in the past but, really….
Don’t forget the whole “foreign leaders” flap. Kerry’s claim on that one was that someone else had slipped that phrase into the text of his speech without his permission. Never mind that he was on tape, saying the same thing in off-the-cuff remarks in other situations.
Feh.
Okay, I am confused. Bush lied by telling the truth here? And Kerry, thinking it was a bluff, went along and voted for the war. Maybe its one of those nuanced things that I don’t get.
As for the cookies, that is small potatoes. But the bunny suit is going to lose him voters. It gives the impression that the man takes himself too seriously, has no sense of humor about himself. It is NOT Dukasis, noted pacifist, in a tank. It was a sitting senator visiting some of the cool NASA hardware. Everyone looks silly in those bunny suits, and he should have laughed it off, instead of making the claims of “dirty tricks” that he did. Its gonna cost him.
Kerry expected POTUS to be lying.
Kerry wants to be POTUS
So what are to expect from him if
he wins ?
file under: things that make you
go mmm???
…and after everything that has happened listed above, he comes out and gives that big, fake salute during his convention speech! I actually felt uncomfortable watching him do that. I’m starting to feel sorry for the guy.
I tried the First Lady’s cookie recipe and it was a hit with everyone who tasted it.
I haven’t tried Mrs. Kerry’s yet and now maybe I won’t.
Pumpkin spice cookies. Rhats what you’ve got.
So its pumpkin spice cookies vs. marching against extending apartheid to higher education.
I’ve made my pick.
Let me make sure I’ve got this right. You’re saying that if Kerry is not elected apartheid will be extended to higher education?
If so, you have indeed make your pick. And his name is Chicken Little.
KERRY MARINE PHOTO OP MISFIRES:…
KERRY MARINE PHOTO OP MISFIRES: July 31, 2004 — SCRANTON, Pa. — John Kerry’s heavily hyped cross-country bus tour stumbled out of the blocks yesterday, as a group of Marines publicly dissed the Vietnam War hero in the middle of…
“Let me make sure I’ve got this right. You’re saying that if Kerry is not elected apartheid will be extended to higher education?”
Its a good thing you made sure, because your comprehension skills are kind of poor. Teresa has in the past marched against the extension of apartheid to her university in south africa.
And she has also been involved in pumpkinspicegate. Mistakes were made.
Over the two, I know which to pick as a judge of character.
actus – Thanks for the correction. You’ll just have to be patient with those of us suffering from poor comprehension skills. But at least now I’ve got it: Because Teresa once marched against apartheid, it’s O.K. for her, once both her cookie recipes bombed, to blame her staff for trying to sabotage her.
“Because Teresa once marched against apartheid, it’s O.K. for her, once both her cookie recipes bombed, to blame her staff for trying to sabotage her”
You’re still in need of help. Nobody said anything makes anything ok. I just said which I put weight on when judging character. But frankly, I don’t think anyone who pays this much attention to pumpkinspicegate will benefit from any sort of help.
It’s real classy to go on somebody else’s blog and insult him. John can devote his entire blog to pumpkin spice cookies if he wants to. It’s a free country.
Thanks, Laura. As it happens, I think actus’s comments are actually quite useful, revealing as they do so well a sensibility that is quite common (though not universal, thank goodness) on the left these days.
First, as you note, there is the easy descent into ad hominem slurs against those who disagree, a descent that is greased by the assumption that only those who are stupid or evil could reject the truth and goodness that those on the left so generously reveal to the rest of us.
Second, and to my taste more unappealing, is the belief of the true believers that having the right position (which is to say, the left position) on this or that Big Issue outweighs and even excuses any number of character flaws or personal failings. So, if we put Teresa’s marching against apartheid on one side of the scale and her paranoid abuse of her staff, accusing them of purposefully submitting a lousy cookie recipe in her name, on the other, the former earns her a pardon for the latter. (Note here that my original post wasn’t about Teresa’s cookies; it was about her lashing out at her staff for sabotaging her. Had there been nothing more here than recipe fudging it wouldn’t have been worth discussing.)
Kick your dog all you want, but as long as you’re against Haliburton and global warming our tent is big enough to welcome you.
What I find most insightful is that its apparently a ‘left’ position to have been against extending apartheid to higher education back in the day. I didn’t know this was a partisan issue.
John’s argument in no way depends on regarding the act of marching against apartheid as being a leftist position, and it is not at all clear that John so regards it. His point is that taking a commendable position on one issue does not nullify the character flaws revealed by other statements and actions. In the end you have to put together all the information that you have about each of the candidates and place your own weights on each item’s importance. Both candidates oppose apartheid, so what difference does that make?
I don’t think his argument depends on it. But he did say it. Or maybe he was ranting against something that wasn’t there.
“both candidates” may oppose apartheid, but this woman is not a candidate. I don’t see what the candidates, or partisanship, have to do with this.
Ya. She’s a loose cannon. She’s likely to think noone in her staff is stupid enough to send the wrong recipe twice, and so she then speculates that it’s on purpose. Or maybe not. Watch out. You never know with those opinionated types.
Heinz-Kerry is not running for office. Her opinions about anything are moot. It’s a tremendous waste of time to give any consideration to her speeches, interviews, or off the cuff remarks.
Ever since Eleanor Roosevelt, the First Lady has had a strong role to play in American culture, for better or worse.
Some were more active than others. For example, I don’t remember much regarding Bess Truman, or Mamie Eisenhower, but Jackie Kennedy, Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon, Elizabeth Ford, Rosalynn Carter, Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, and Hillary Clinton all had projects and causes that they used their influence as First Lady to promote.
Hillary Clinton was perhaps the greatest activist, as they used to say that with the Clintons, you got two for the price of one when electing Bill. I think she was even quoted once as saying “We are the POTUS…”. In my opinion, her hamfisted approach to being First Lady is an example of how NOT to go about it…
First impressions can be a real bugger. It won’t affect how I’m going to vote, but the prospect of having to endure an administration featuring the First Bitch isn’t very appealing…
That ’70s Show
Obviously, John F. Kerry hopes that his initials, his thick shock of hair and his New England accent remind you of an earlier (and ironically far more conservative–in oh so many ways) JFK. But his style so far is much…
“First impressions can be a real bugger. ”
If you had first learned of something good she did, they you would think otherwise?
I suspect the baseball pitch comment was self-deprecating and tongue-in-cheek. Reread it, he’s talking about a professional athlete. You’re too caught up with Macho Man Bush, who would probably throw the ball as hard as he could, miss the catcher by a mile, and knock out three spectators’ teeth. That’s a pretty fair model of the Iraq War.
President Bush did, in fact, throw out the first pitch on opening day in St. Louis. He threw from the rubber, where a man should throw from, not from in front of the mound like Kerry. And it was a perfect strike. An apt metaphor for his leadership on the war.
Actus said, “”First impressions can be a real bugger. ”
If you had first learned of something good she did, they you would think otherwise?”
Well, yeah! And if my aunt had balls, she’d be my uncle. As it is, that first impression has already been made, although I will amend my reservations: I would not care for a Kerry administration featurning the First Rich Bitch.
Sabotage, eh? Lying to him, no one can be trusted.
Psychologists call it “projection”.
Something to think about in the person running for President.
Kerry’s new campaign motto:
“Just because we’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get us”
– Vast Right Wing Cookie
So the “Mozambique Mouth” can’t make cookies either?