Palin takes a shot at Kerry's face

[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/06/08/art.spalin0608.gi.jpg
caption="Gov. Sarah Palin exchanged jokes with Sen. John Kerry this week."]
(CNN) - She's visiting troops on a peacekeeping mission, but Sarah Palin signaled Friday she's ready to go to battle with John Kerry, who reportedly made a joke earlier this week at her expense.

The Boston Herald reported that on Wednesday, before South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's exact whereabouts were widely known, the Massachusetts senator mused to reporters the wrong elected official had dropped out of sight.

"Too bad if a governor had to go missing it couldn't have been the governor of Alaska," he said, according to the paper. "You know, Sarah Palin."

Palin herself, speaking to U.S. troops in Kosovo, responded Friday with a shot aimed straight for the face - literally.

"Then Sen. John Kerry makes this joke, I don't know if you saw this, but he makes this joke saying, 'Aw shoot, of all the governors in the nation who disappeared, too bad it couldn't have been that governor from Alaska...'" she said.

"But the way he said it, he looked quite frustrated, and he looked so sad, and I just wanted to reach out to the TV and say, 'John Kerry, why the long face?'"

Palin is overseas visiting Alaska National Guard troops on a peacekeeping mission.