IS KERRY UNTOUCHABLE?….Ron Brownstein has a question:

Has a frontrunner at the height of the race for a party’s presidential nomination ever had an easier two weeks than John F. Kerry since the Iowa caucuses last month?

This has been vaguely in the back of my mind for the past few days too. Brownstein is referring to the other candidates here, who, with the exception of Howard Dean, have all treated Kerry with kid gloves. And as Brownstein notes, over-the-top accusations such as charging a senator with a lifetime ADA score of 93 of being a “Republican” hardly helps Dean’s case.

What adds to the weirdness of this is that the press hasn’t laid a glove on him either. Just as an example, compare Time’s cover treatment of Dean a few weeks ago painting him as just short of a serial liar to this week’s almost hagiographic portrait of Kerry. The difference could hardly be more stunning.

I’m not sure what’s going on, but Brownstein is right. It’s unprecedented for a clear frontrunner to be treated so gingerly by practically everyone. Does Kerry have secret files on all these guys, or what?