What Happened, What Happened!? He Spoke French!!

Matt Welch | April 19, 2004

Apparently, the campaign to associate the name "John Kerry" with the phrase "haughty, French-looking" has exacted its cruel toll: the Dems' French-fluent First Family is starting to act defensively monolingual, according to this amusing little bit in The New Yorker. Excerpt:

Suddenly, Kerry appeared to develop linguistic amnesia. "During a press conference, I asked Kerry a question, on Iraq," de Chalvron recalled. "He didn�t answer. In front of the American journalists, he didn't want to take a question that was not in English." [�]

Family members have apparently been put on a leash as well. Kerry's wife, Berrou says, "speaks with us in French with no problem, and her press attach� has to pull her by the shirt to get her away from us."