WASHINGTON – Everyone does things and says things they are sorry for, first lady Laura Bush (search) observes. And she's not necessarily talking about plain-speaking Teresa Heinz Kerry (search).
"I think I had a little girl who stuck her tongue out at the press last week. I shouldn't have brought it up, but it happens," Bush said Wednesday on a network news show. Daughter Jenna, 22, laughed and stuck out her tongue at news media July 20 during a campaign trip to St. Louis with her father.
Photographers caught the waggish pose as Jenna sat in the presidential limousine.
"I didn't actually know about it," her mother said. "I was hiking in Glacier National Park (search) with no news, no telephones. So when I got off my hike I called her and she sort of went on about it like she was sure I knew about it, which I didn't."
Her advice to her daughter? "Maybe you should work on your issues of impulsiveness or something," she recalled.
Bush wouldn't offer similar advice to John Kerry's wife, who has told an insistent reporter to "shove it" and responded to Bush supporters' chants of "Four more years!" by saying "They want four more years of hell."
When asked if Heinz Kerry's "shove it" comment was appropriate, Bush said: "It's hard when your husband's running for president. It's hard to be scrutinized and to hear the criticisms, and I think that's really what the fact of the matter is in what she said."
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