"Shut up. Shove it."

The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, provides the latest sign that Teresa Heinz Kerry, for all her dough, may be a campaign liability for hubby (though great fun for the viewing public):

Citing negative ads President Bush's campaign is airing about her husband, [Heinz Kerry] said, "We need to turn back some of the creeping un-Pennsylvanian and sometimes un-American traits that are coming into some of our politics."

When Pittsburgh Tribune-Review editorial page editor Colin McNickle asked which un-American activities she was talking about, Heinz Kerry accurately denied that she used the word "activities." Then, despite taped versions of her remarks, she repeatedly denied she had said the word, "un-American."

"I didn't say that, I didn't say that word," she told McNickle. An aide rushed her off down a rope line, but Heinz Kerry shoved back past her aide, and leaning forward, shook a finger at McNickle and said, "Shut up. Shove it."

Whole thing here. Not quite as pithy as Dick Cheney's "Go fuck yourself," but not bad. Especially since, as the AP has spun the story, the outburst came right after THK "urged home-state delegates to the Democratic National Convention to restore a more civil tone to politics."