Heinz Kerry asks whether Laura Bush ever had 'real job'

1.00pm

WASHINGTON - Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, questioned whether first lady Laura Bush ever had "a real job," but apologised later on Wednesday after her remarks drew fire from the Bush campaign.

Senior Bush campaign adviser Karen Hughes said the "unfortunate" remark was aimed at dividing women.

"Teaching is a real job. Working as a librarian is a real job. Staying at home and rearing a family is a real job," Hughes said.

Heinz Kerry, a philanthropist and heiress to a Heinz ketchup fortune of more than $500 ($736) million, made the comment in an interview published on Wednesday with USA Today.

Asked how she would be different from Mrs. Bush if Kerry won the Nov. 2 election, Heinz Kerry said: "Well, you know, I don't know Laura Bush. But she seems to be calm, and she has a sparkle in her eye, which is good. But I don't know that she's ever had a real job -- I mean, since she's been grown up."

In a statement put out later by the Kerry campaign, Heinz Kerry said she had forgotten Mrs. Bush's work as a teacher and librarian, "and there couldn't be a more important job than teaching our children."

"I appreciate and honour Mrs. Bush's service to the country as first lady, and am sincerely sorry I had not remembered her important work in the past," Heinz Kerry's statement said.

Heinz Kerry is no stranger to controversy. She has referred to a second Bush term as "four more years of hell" and told a reporter to "shove it."

- REUTERS