Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Democrat (CATHOLIC) Kerry Urges Caution on 'Passion'
Reuters News Service ^ | 26 February 2004 | Patricia Wilson

Posted on 02/26/2004 1:50:03 PM PST by MegaSilver

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - 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 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.

Relaxed and chatty -- so long as the topic wasn't politics -- Kerry conceded aboard his campaign plane that he had enjoyed on video the special effects in "Terminator 3," starring California's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Having declared the press cabin of his Boeing 727 a politics-free zone for about 10 minutes, the ever-cautious Kerry batted away questions about the state of the presidential race, his major rival Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, and even how he was adjusting to life with Secret Service protection.

But he appears to have had a seamless transition to the protective bubble, slipping easily in and out of black SUVs, working and making phone calls from the back seat.

In New York on Monday, his motorcade of about a dozen vehicles, including three press buses, shot through red lights in Manhattan. In Ohio and Minnesota, state troopers blocked highway on-ramps and intersections.

Despite what Kerry called "a great adventure," so many months on the campaign trail have taken a toll.

"We haven't sat down to a family dinner since maybe pre-Christmas," he said. "But I'm having a great time." He misses his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, who has mostly stumped for her husband separately. The couple will see each other for the first time in 10 days when she joins him to await the results of Super Tuesday's 10 primaries and caucuses, including the big states of California, New York and Ohio.

Kerry's daughters from a previous marriage, Vanessa, who is studying medicine at Harvard, and Alexandra, a film student in Los Angeles, campaigned with their father during the holidays.

He acknowledged that he and Alex had had "some fights" but refused to say what about. Those in the know say it was probably involving politics. Alex has declared herself more liberal than her father.

The issue is certainly not boyfriends.

"I never fight about that," Kerry said. "I'm a very good dad. I listen about their boyfriends."

© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2004; catholic; catholicpoliticians; johnfkerry; johnforbeskerry; johnkerry; kerry
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-77 last
To: jonboy
AND will be terribly damaged by doing so. The downside is only for Kerry, none for Bush.

He'll do it anyway, because he's too clueless to realize this. All of his supporters will faithfully spout the official Hollywood line on the movie, so Kerry will of course arogantly assume that ALL Americans are appalled at the movie.

61 posted on 02/26/2004 5:02:27 PM PST by CFC__VRWC (AIDS, abortion, euthanasia - don't liberals just kill ya?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | View Replies]

To: danneskjold
Is Kerry's position on a movie really that important?
62 posted on 02/26/2004 5:03:36 PM PST by CalKat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: MegaSilver
So, As with everything else, Kerry is EITHER For or Against The Passion.

But thats ok because I hear he served in Vietnam.

63 posted on 02/26/2004 5:05:55 PM PST by commish (Freedom Tastes Sweetest to Those Who Have Fought to Preserve It)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CalKat
Is Kerry's position on a movie really that important?

Kerry and the media apparently think so. They're trying to set a trap for the President, who has already stated he is looking forward to seeing the movie. They think this will turn into something they can beat Bush over the head with, but they couldn't be more wrong.

64 posted on 02/26/2004 5:07:05 PM PST by CFC__VRWC (AIDS, abortion, euthanasia - don't liberals just kill ya?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies]

To: danneskjold
He's not sure he will see it, and after he sees it he won't remember seeing it.
65 posted on 02/26/2004 5:08:33 PM PST by Rome2000 (JIHADISTS FOR KERRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: MegaSilver
Kerry conceded aboard his campaign plane that he had enjoyed on video the special effects in "Terminator 3," starring California's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Now, why does he have to "concede" that he enjoyed this movie? Because it's got a "Republican" in it?

66 posted on 02/26/2004 5:36:36 PM PST by craig_eddy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MegaSilver
"...but there's a lot of it around now "

Absolutely. Anti-Semitism is rampant- in the Democrat Party. The Congressional Black Caucus, the McKinney's from GA, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are not exactly fond ,as Rep McKinney-D (GA ) would say- of " The Jeeeews."

The FORWARD,10/02/02:

" To judge by some reactions, black-Jewish relations are hitting a low point. The immediate cause is the rallying of "pro-Israel forces" around successful primary challenges to two veteran black incumbents in Congress. Cynthia McKinney of Georgia and Earl Hilliard of Alabama, both DEMOCRATS, lost primaries this year to younger black politicians who benefited from a massive fund-raising effort on their behalf from across the country."

"McKinney and Hilliard backers have argued that JEWS are trying to dominate them politically and restrict the terms of the Middle East discourse."

"Start with the question of blacks and Jews. McKinney's father, Georgia state representative Billy McKinney, blamed her defeat on the "J-E-W-S."
Following McKinney's loss, Congressional Black Caucus chair Eddie Bernice Johnson, a Texas Democrat, told The Washington Post that African-American voters think " JEWISH people are attempting to pick our leaders."

"Rev. Jesse Jackson ( HYMIETOWN) — just back from his own peace mission to the Middle East, during which he had to cancel a scheduled meeting with the spiritual leader of HAMAS following yet another Hamas suicide bombing — reflected that the main pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, "does not place a great premium on [the black-Jewish] coalition."

"Jackson had it exactly backwards. It was McKinney and Hilliard and the other nearly half of the BLACK CAUCUS who abstained or voted against the May 2 resolution supporting Israel's right to self-defense against suicide bombing, who subverted that coalition through their irresponsible ANTI-ISRAEL VOTES and rhetoric."

From Timeswatch.com, regarding Al Sharpton, Dem Candidate for President :

"...he ignores two other incendiary examples of Sharpton's hate-mongering, which the Boston Globe's Jeff Jacoby outlined in a column earlier this year."

"Jacoby writes of a 1991 incident: "A Hasidic Jewish driver in Brooklyn's Crown Heights section accidentally kills Gavin Cato, a 7-year-old black child, and ANTI-SEMITIC riots erupt.
Sharpton races to pour gasoline on the fire. At Gavin's funeral he rails against the 'diamond merchants'--code for Jews--with 'the blood of innocent babies' on their hands."

" Jacoby also notes this from 1995: "When the United House of Prayer, a large black landlord in Harlem, raises the rent on Freddy's Fashion Mart, Freddy's white JEWISH owner is forced to raise the rent on his subtenant, a black-owned music store."
"A landlord-tenant dispute ensues; Sharpton uses it to incite racial hatred. 'We will not stand by,' he warns malignantly, "and allow them to move this brother so that some white interloper can expand his business.'
"Sharpton's National Action Network sets up picket lines; customers going into Freddy's are spat on and cursed.
'We're going to see that this cracker suffers,' says Sharpton's colleague Morris Powell."
"On Dec. 8, one of the protesters bursts into Freddy's, shoots four employees point-blank, then sets the store on fire. Seven employees die in the inferno."

Kerry sounds just like Clinton,when Clinton claimed to have seen a lot of black churches burning as a child.
67 posted on 02/26/2004 5:42:37 PM PST by Wild Irish Rogue
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MegaSilver
It's simply a conflict of interest.
As both a "Jew" and an Irish "Roman" Catholic, he's afraid he'll have to go out in the parking lot afterwards and kick his own @ss.

68 posted on 02/26/2004 5:52:04 PM PST by Salamander
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MegaSilver
In New York on Monday, his motorcade of about a dozen vehicles, including three press buses, shot through red lights in Manhattan. In Ohio and Minnesota, state troopers blocked highway on-ramps and intersections.

John Kerry, man of the people.

69 posted on 02/26/2004 6:09:04 PM PST by NYCVirago
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: craig_eddy
Now, why does he have to "concede" that he enjoyed this movie? Because it's got a "Republican" in it?

Well, I hoped gets lots of practicing "conceding."

70 posted on 02/26/2004 6:14:14 PM PST by bootless (Never Forget)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | View Replies]

To: ConservativeLawStudent
ping
71 posted on 02/26/2004 6:40:38 PM PST by freedom44
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: My2Cents; prairiebreeze
Good points by both of you. Kerry is obsessed with his Vietnam service.

Prairie is right also: Kerry stories are no stories at all. Bash bush and reference Vietman.
72 posted on 02/26/2004 8:01:23 PM PST by onyx (Your secrets are safe with me and all my friends.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: MegaSilver
I really think that Kerry needs to work harder on getting the word out that he served in Viet Nam. /sarcasm
73 posted on 02/26/2004 9:03:51 PM PST by Utah Girl
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dawn53
That's good, but I know you can fit anopther "eff word" in there somewhere......LOL.
74 posted on 02/27/2004 3:19:31 AM PST by Liz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: MegaSilver
Kerry is a PREDICTABLE liberal...repeats what he hears LIBERALS say about a movie NON of them have seen......Last night Gibson recieved a prolonged standing ovation of Leno.....MOST Americans see what the liberals are saying about Gibson and the movie, and are supporting both....so the BRILLIANT Kerry joins forces with the minority of shrill voices who don't have a clue what they are talking about...
75 posted on 02/27/2004 3:27:14 AM PST by Moby Grape
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MegaSilver
The couple will see each other for the first time in 10 days when she joins him to await the results of Super Tuesday's 10 primaries and caucuses...

Uh-oh! Something bad must be brewing in that family. Watch for scenes of Mrs. Heinz on Super Tuesday. Capture the screen shots of her. I don't think we will see a happy face.

76 posted on 02/27/2004 3:31:38 AM PST by PJ-Comix (Saddam Hussein was only 537 Florida votes away from still being in power)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MegaSilver
But he appears to have had a seamless transition to the protective bubble, slipping easily in and out of black SUVs, working and making phone calls from the back seat.

ANOTHER liberal who uses SUVs.

77 posted on 02/27/2004 3:34:06 AM PST by PJ-Comix (Saddam Hussein was only 537 Florida votes away from still being in power)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-77 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson