Letter: Choking incident fodder for cynics

Friday, Sept. 10, 2004 | 9 a.m.

Few folks outside Nevada know about the time John Kerry calmly and cooly saved former Sen. Chic Hecht, R-Nev., from choking to death in the Senate corridor.

On a day in July 1988, the Las Vegas Sun reported that when Hecht had a piece of apple lodged in his throat, other senators tried slapping him on the back. But it was Kerry who chanced to be walking by and intervened in time to apply the Heimlich maneuver. On Kerry's fourth attempt, the morsel dislodged and Hecht lived to tell the tale.

Surely, though, some "witnesses for truth," who weren't even present, can find a way to discredit this. I can see the ads: Kerry, Hecht and all other senators who were present must be lying. Or, Kerry was lurking in wait in the Senate corridor for just this opportunity to "save" somebody. Or, if he's so competent under fire, why did it take him four attempts to get the apple out out? Could it be that Kerry planted it there?

DAVID RUPEL Olympia, Wash.

archive