I Don't Understand This

But maybe it's because I'm from New Jersey. Following Ms. Heinz Kerry, our fun with the Democratic Party's First Wives Club continues:

Iowa First Lady Christie Vilsack, a key factor in John Kerry's primary sweep and the primetime convention speaker tomorrow, has derided blacks, southerners and easterners as bad speakers because she couldn't understand them.

In inflammatory columns for her local newspaper obtained by the Herald, the normally soft-spoken Vilsack tore into several minority and ethnic groups while lampooning non-midwesterners for regional dialects.

"I am fascinated at the way some African-Americans speak to each other in an English I struggle to understand, then switch to standard English when the situation requires,'' Vilsack wrote in a 1994 column in the Mount Pleasant News, while her husband, Tom, was a state senator.

Vilsack wrote that southerners seem to have ``slurred speech,'' wrote that she'd rather learn Polish than try to speak like people from New Jersey, and wrote that a West Virginian waitress once offered her friend a ``side saddle'' instead of a ``side salad.''

There's more. We are assured by the Kerry side that her views from 1994 are "ancient clips". Ancient? So what does that make the "Kerry went to Vietnam while Bush went AWOL" theme, Jurassic? We're just glad a Republican didn't say this (and don't anyone tell Josh Marshall - he'll snap a pencil!)

This isn't all new - if I recall, it was H.L. Mencken who observed that the most effective method of birth control yet invented was a Brooklyn accent.

That said, we eagerly await even more surprises from the Democratic Party's First Wives Club.

MORE: From flyover country:

``Later, on the boardwalk, I heard mothers calling to their children, `I'll meet yoose here after the movie,' '' she wrote. ``The only way I can speak like residents of New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania is to let my jaw drop an inch and talk with my lips in an `O' like a fish. I'd rather learn to speak Polish.''

Every Jersey Guy will know how to respond this. Not that we are necessarily proud of it...

And when will we stop beating their wives? Maybe when they stop being featured in prime time as the smiling face of the Democratic Party.

Comments

[TM]

More from flyover country:

``Later, on the boardwalk, I heard mothers calling to their children, `I'll meet yoose here after the movie,' '' she wrote. ``The only way I can speak like residents of New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania is to let my jaw drop an inch and talk with my lips in an `O' like a fish. I'd rather learn to speak Polish.''

To respond properly, I have to channel my inner Jersey guy and say, "Yeah? Drop your jaw an inch and make your lips into an "O" around this".

Sorry, this is meant to be a family blog.

[ordi]

What's that about Dems and diversity?

[29]

It's clear that the Democrats had to vet Christie Vilsack and not her husband.

[patrick]

MEMO

TO: Christie Vilsack
FROM: A Fellow Iowan

Miss Vilsack,
Please travel outside of Iowa from time to time. Like Britain.

[ed]

Hmmm.

Amazes me that so many people forget that the DNC was once the party of slavery, Jim Crow and the KKK.

[Ed]

Nothing new here. When I was in law school 29 years ago a fellow student from Michigan coolly told me, without a trace of irony or humor in his voice, that Midwesterners "didn't hev en exent."

[Steve]

---I'd rather learn to speak Polish.---

As an American of Polish descent, I would like to ask her what she is implying by this statement?

I know a few choice Polish words I can teach her.

[dfgh]

But don't ever make fun of people who say "Cuber".That'll get you burned at the stake for heresy.

"What's that about Dems and diversity?"

That's for the unenlightened riff-raff,the truly annointed are already enriched and enlightened,which is why they live in Vermont.

[martin]

Sounds like she was trying to reach out to Republicans to me.

[ubu]

I'm from Texis. I don't have en acksent. Ya'll got acksents, but I don't. Now whut's that crack about R'publikins agin??

[Bob R]

People often ask me if I speak any foreign languages. I tell them "Yes, Texan." I always thought I was making a joke but Missus Vilsack has me all confused.

[David Ross]

Steve, she married a Vilsack. So she's probably got learning Polish on her Things-To-Do-If-I-Live-To-Be-300 list. If I married an Irishwoman I daresay I'd put learning Gaelic on that sort of list. There's no disrespect to the Poles in her statement, although I'll grant it didn't come out right.

Also, how is what she said any worse - hell, any DIFFERENT - than what Cosby said? You can't say that Cosby is a brave truth-to-power prophet one week and call Vilsack a disrespectful p0nk the next.

[Sortelli]

Lesse, Cosby encourages personal responsibility, Vilsack mocks people for talking different.

Nope! No difference there.

[Sortelli]

Lesse, Cosby encourages personal responsibility, Vilsack mocks people for talking different.

Nope! No difference there.

[Sortelli]

I'm sure this is going to post twice, I don't know why, so apologies for that. I'm going to stop commenting from my crummy work browsers. >_<

[Sortelli]

I'm sure this is going to post twice, I don't know why, so apologies for that. I'm going to stop commenting from my crummy work browsers. >_<

[Alex Bensky]

Ed either has a poor ear or does not remember clearly. Michiganders wouldn't "hev an eksent" either. We don't have an accent. We speak Midwestern American and it's unaccented speech. Everyone else has the accent.

By the way, the stuff like Coke and ginger ale is pop, not soda. We don't wear sneakers or stand on line. We wear gym shoes or tennis shoes and when we stand in line we stand tall.

[Dave]

Damnedyankees and their prej-yu-dishes. Cain't e'en talk raht.

[Carridine]

A 40-year professional linguist (me!) opines:
Linguistic prejudice and bigotry is near-universal... Glad she was outed. I can make people angry at my mal-pronunciation in several dialects of Thai, and three of Korean, not to menchun leev'n neah dah Skook'l rivuh in Philly...