Politics may be battleground, but decorum not 'out'

Teresa Heinz Kerry may not have reacted ideally to hecklers along the campaign trail, but it's the hecklers who ought to be apologizing. Heinz Kerry, the billionaire wife of Democratic presidential John Kerry, was speaking at a rally recently, when pro-Bush spectators began interrupting her with shouts, ''Four more years,'' to which she responded: ''Four more years of hell.'' For that, she is being reviled by Republicans and excoriated by some in the media.

It's hard to see why she should be either reviled or excoriated. She isn't the one who started the row. She simply replied to it in candid fashion.

Each year, the campaign trail becomes littered more and more with examples of impoliteness and unabashedly rude behavior. The hecklers who shouted ''Four more years'' were interrupting a woman invited to deliver a message to an audience. How many people, talking face to face with someone, would drown out the conversation by chanting over the other person's observations? That is plainly beyond tolerable. ...

Whether Heinz Kerry will define for America once and for all the kind of person who will be the archetype of the presidential spouse will await history. But, surely, neither she nor any other candidate's wife should have to abide such rudeness when stating her opinion.

Press-Republican, Plattsburgh, N.Y. - Aug. 11