Don't cry for me Massachusetts...

The Democratic convention got off to a less than dignified start yesterday afternoon when Teresa Heinz Kerry had words with a journalist. And by "had words with," I mean she told a journalist to "Shove it."

She reportedly said this to an editor from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, a right-wing newspaper from her hometown, who asked her to clarify remarks she made earlier during a speech to Pennsylvania delegates.

"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 told the delegates. When the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review editorial writer asked her to clarify what she meant by "un-American," she said she never used that phrase, but he didn't relent. Heinz Kerry walked away, but then returned: "You said something I didn't say, now shove it," she said, pointing her finger at him.

As it's being reported, the journalist was innocent enough of trying to confront her with a phrase she did supposedly say, despite her denial. I don't think it's out of bounds to ask her what she means by that. But there is more at play here in this interaction than the mainstream press is to be reporting.

There's a history between Heinz Kerry and the Tribune-Review, a newspaper published by the right-wing donor Richard Mellon Scaife, the shadowy figure of Whitewater with close ties to Ken Starr. He helped to fuel the unwarranted Clinton impeachment through his money and extreme right-wing media influence. As the Kerry campaign put it 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."

Example #1:Scaife's charities funded the authors of a study purporting to link Heinz Kerry to a San Francisco group with supposedly "radical" views and accused her foundation of "laundering" donations to radical groups. This report was covered by Scaife's newspaper without mentioning that he helped fund it. This bogus report was only covered on the opinion pages of conservative newspapers.

Example #2: There was the report that Heinz Kerry's estate is designated as farmland, and thus assessed at a lower tax rate than her real estate spread deserves. But this story, too, has little merit. Heinz Kerry actually wrote a letter to the county chief executive in 2002 asking to pay more taxes because she thought her property was being underassessed.

So clearly Heinz Kerry expects hostile coverage from this newspaper, and her reaction was a product of that expectation. Democrats including Sen. Hillary Clinton jumped to Teresa's defense: "'She is expressing herself honestly and openly,' Mrs. Clinton told CNN this morning. Asked if such a remark would turn off voters, Mrs. Clinton said: 'I don't think that it will. I think a lot of Americans are going to say, 'Good for you! You go, girl!' And that certainly is how I feel about it.'"

While I am against Hillary Clinton trying to sound like a pre-teen girl from the early 90s, I support Theresa Heinz Kerry. She is woman of integrity who obviously speaks her mind. A first-generation American of Portuguese ancestry, Heinz Kerry grew up in the east African country of Mozambique. She is fluent in five languages, attended school in South Africa and Switzerland, and is chairwoman of the Howard Heinz Endowment and the Heinz Family Philanthropies. In that role, she has helped channel money to organizations focused on health care, early childhood education and the arts. She's like the Eva Peron of America, but without all the "Patti Lupone superficial glory-hogging." Maybe it's just the accent. Watch her speech tonight at the convention. You'll fall in love.