The Heinz Foundation is centrist, dontchaknow

The N.Y. Post's editorial "(Mrs.) Kerry's Cash Connection" discussed how Heinz money was donated to the Tides Foundation, which then supports groups like "September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows:"

Indeed, the group's leaders traveled to Afghanistan, drawing a detestable moral equivalence between the 9/11 attacks and U.S. bombing of the Taliban and opposing "violent responses to terrorism."

Then, before the onset of Operation Iraqi Freedom, a Peaceful Tomorrows delegation went to Baghdad to "demonstrate solidarity" with Iraqis - a move that Saddam's deputy, Tariq Aziz, termed at the time "a very important international development."

They also demanded that Congress set up a $20 million fund to compensate Afghan "victims" of the U.S. military.

And back in January 2003, the group said had it had gotten a "verbal commitment" to the fund proposal from the junior senator from Massachusetts - John F. Kerry.

Little surprise there - because Peaceful Tomorrows' parent group, the San Francisco-based Tides Foundation, has received millions from foundations controlled by Kerry's heiress wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry.

A spokesman for Kerry insists that her donations to Tides were earmarked specifically for environmental charities based in Pennsylvania. But money is fungible - and the Tides Foundation has a lot more than greening the earth on its plate...

The President of The Heinz Endowments disputes the Post's allegation, specifically the part about the fungibility of money: "Heinz Endowments: Hardly Extremist."

The Post defines fungibility for him in "Mrs. Kerry's Proxy Protests:" "...dedicated grants from Heinz Endowment money have the effect of relieving the Tides Foundation of the need to raise money for other expenses and commitments. That's the standard meaning of the widely used assertion that "money is fungible."

Politics · Fri, 03/12/2004 - 15:25 · · Importance: 1