Senator Who Lied About His Own Military Record Challenges McCain

Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa is an embarrassment, both to the Senate and to the citizens of his home state of Iowa. It is Harkin that you can see cheering on Howard Dean has he makes his famous "I Have a Scream" speech in 2004, and Harkin is the guy shouting "DO IT FOR PAUL!" as he turned a memorial service into a crass political rally when he exhorted the thousands of mourners to elect Democrats because that's what the recently dead Senator Paul Wellstone supposed would have wanted.

Harkin is also known for lies about his own military experience, and now he's making the ridiculous claim that John McCain is unfit to serve as president because he comes from a military family:

Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin is catching grief for suggesting John McCain’s family history of military service makes the presumptive Republican presidential nominee unfit to be commander-in-chief.

Harkin, who has a history of embellishing his own military record, told Iowa reporters last week that McCain’s background as the son and grandson of Navy admirals creates a “dangerous” situation because he can only view the world through the prism of the military.

“He has a hard time thinking beyond that,” Harkin said, according to The Des Moines Register. “I think he’s trapped in that. Everything is looked at from his life experiences, from always having been in the military, and I think that can be pretty dangerous.”

The paper also quotes Iowa’s junior senator telling reporters, “It’s one thing to have been drafted and served, but another thing when you come from generations of military people and that’s just how you’re steeped, how you’ve learned, how you’ve grown up.”

And what about Harkin's own military service?

Harkin, who noted in the conference call with reporters that difficulty recruiting has led to more high school dropouts and felons entering the military, has a long military record of his own.

He served in the Navy on active duty for five years, and remained in the reserves until 1989. But while running for president in 2004, he was forced to admit that he never did combat air patrols or photo reconnaissance in Vietnam as he had claimed.

According to The Wall Street Journal, which acquired his military records at the time of his presidential bid, Harkin ferried damaged aircraft between repair stations in Japan and the Philippines, and ran test flights of the planes after they were fixed.

These comments by Harkin simply underscore the reality that most Democrats have little respect for the military and for those who make the armed services their career.