Pope gets "frank" with PM

Tony Blair's last foreign trip as head of government was no cakewalk. Rather than embrace the man most sources say will soon be a Catholic, Pope Benedict evidently had hard words for Blair, though no one's sure what they may have been about. One possibility is the Iraq war and Britain's involvement in it. Or perhaps it is the Labor government's recent laws funding embryonic stem cell research and a new law prohibiting discrimination against gays and lesbians in matters of adoption.

What we do know is that the Vatican's press office, according a story on the U.K.'s Guardian website, that the PM and the pope had a "frank exchange of views," which is diplo-speak for "they had an argument." Ouch--would love to have been a fly on the wall in that room. What's the pope like when he's "frank"?

One wonders what we can expect with our own elections looming, especially as Giuliani gets raked over the coals for pulling the old "personally against but publicly for" position on abortion.