in today's news...

Via Drudge: Democrat Kerry Urges Caution on 'Passion'.

Front-runner John Kerry arrived in Los Angeles on Thursday ready to debate his rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination but unsure about the city's latest controversial production, “The Passion of the Christ.”

“I don't know,” he said when asked if he would see the Mel Gibson (news) film about the last days of Jesus' life and its particularly harrowing focus on his crucifixion.

Kerry, a Catholic, said he was worried about the movie's potential anti-Semitism. Some critics have complained that Gibson portrays Jews as responsible for Jesus' death.

“I am concerned,” he told reporters. “I don't know if it's there or not but there's a lot of it around now. I think we have to be careful.”

The four-term senator from Massachusetts hasn't had much time to see movies lately. He has been running for president virtually since the beginning of last year.

In fact, the last movie he saw in a theater was another Mel Gibson flick released in 2002 called “We Were Soldiers,” set in Vietnam where Kerry commanded a Navy Swift boat and was decorated for heroism.

Uhm. Okay.

For the moment, let's ignore the inanity of “I don't know if it's there or not but there's a lot of it around now…” And—just for fun—allow me instead to write tomorrow's Reuters lede:

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Front runner Sen. John Kerry took the morning off from campaigning on Friday, one day after a nationally televised debate in which his rivals for the Democratic nomination were unable to improve their chances for an upset victory in the March 2 “Super Tuesday” primaries.

Sen. Kerry and several staff brunched at a chic Asian eatery in downtown Los Angeles. After the luncheon he volunteered to reporters that the pad Thai was “just as good” as that he had enjoyed while on leave in Bangkok during his tour as commander of a Navy Swift boat in the Mekong Delta.

My political predictions have never been worth much, but: I suspect that Kerry's continual puffery of his own heroism is in the end going to bite him so hard that he will be unable to sit down until, oh, 2006 or so.