US: When Mrs Teresa Heinz Kerry told a journalist to "shove it" at a function in Boston, she alarmed the Democratic Party establishment and created a furore on cable networks starved of any controversy at the Democratic Party National Convention, writes Conor O'Clery in Boston
For many observers however, the remark crystalised concerns about the unpredictability of the possible future First Lady, just as the "Dean scream" confirmed doubts about former Vermont Governor Mr Howard Dean's temperament during the Democratic primary campaign.
The incident came as party heavyweights including former presidents Mr Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, former Vice President Al Gore and New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, queued to speak last night after the four-day convention formally got under way.
At a Sunday night reception in the Massachusetts Statehouse, Senator John Kerry's wife had delivered an impassioned plea for more dignified political discourse. "We need to turn back some of the creeping, un-Pennsylvanian and sometimes un-American traits that are coming into some of our politics," she said.
As she descended the marble stairway afterwards, journalist Colin McNickle of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review asked her what she meant by "un-American".
She said several times, "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 and turning away abruptly.
A spokeswoman for the candidate's wife said later: "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." Heir to the family food fortune and a noted philanthropist, Mrs Heinz Kerry (65) is something of a free spirit in talking to the public.
Before the 2000 campaign she described the prospect of John Kerry running for president as "ridiculous". Born in Mozambique she has compared the campaign to defeat President George Bush to the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa.
Remarks by candidate's spouses on the campaign trail have caused controversy before, like Mrs Hillary Rodham Clinton's 1992 statement "I suppose I could have stayed at home and baked cookies." Asked about the response of Mrs Heinz Kerry to the reporter, Senator Clinton said, "A lot of Americans are going to say, 'Good for you, you go, girl,' and that's certainly how I feel about it." Senator Kerry's wife will speak at the convention tonight, and officials said Mr Kerry has read her script. The candidate, who will be officially nominated on Thursday, is anxious to avoid controversies and to prevent the convention turning into a festival of Bush-bashing and anti-war sentiment.
"We are not Michael Moore," Democratic National chairman Mr Terry McAuliffe told his staff, referring to the anti-Bush documentary maker. "Let's tell the voters what we stand for, not only what we stand against." Though Mr Kerry has checked some other speeches in advance, the party's two most aggressive critics of Mr Bush and the war, Mr Al Gore and Senator Edward Kennedy are regarded as off limits.
Some 80 per cent of delegates oppose the Iraq war, according to a Boston Globe poll, though Mr Kerry has said he would keep US troops in Iraq until stability is achieved.
Mr Clinton was declared the most admired living Democratic by 31 per cent of delegates in the poll, compared to 14 per cent for Mr Kerry and 13 per cent for Mrs Clinton. To avoid overshadowing the candidate, Mr Clinton said before his speech, "I will give a talk and then leave town".
Outside the convention Mr Dean, the anti-war candidate whose cry of defiance at the Iowa caucus hastened his defeat in the primary elections, was greeted like a rock star by young people shouting "Dean, Dean Dean."