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John McCain stands in front of a picture of himself while a Navy pilot. (AP Photo)

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.”

Military service is not a foreign concept to U.S. presidents. In the post-War War II era, Bill Clinton is the only president to have not served in some branch of the military.

McCain, who touts his family history on the campaign trail, was a Vietnam War pilot who spent five and a half years in a prisoner of war camp rather than accept the North Vietnamese offer to release him ahead of his fellow troops because he was the son of an admiral.

On the stump, McCain often discusses the need to continue operations in Iraq until the country can securely manage its own affairs, and has suggested that the U.S. could leave a presence there for as long as 100 years if the country is secure.

In a recent speech, however, the Arizona senator laid out a vision of his administration that included removing U.S. troops from Iraq by 2013.

McCain’s campaign has blasted Harkin for suggesting that a long military career is a bad thing. Elsewhere, the right-wing blogosphere and pundits have suggested that Harkin is out of touch.

“It’s perverse,” said National Review editor Rich Lowry. “He has this family history of serving the country in the most risk-taking way possible, and that somehow disqualifies you to be president of the United States? That’s insane.”

Democratic strategist Kristen Powers, a FOX News political analyst, said Harkin’s comments make it harder for Democrats to claim the moral authority on foreign policy.

“I think it’s a problem. I don’t know why he would say something like that, and it reinforces this idea of Democrats not respecting military service … it’s a noble calling, and I don’t know why he would say something like that,” she said.

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.

Click here to read The Des Moines Register article.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 at 10:21 am and is filed under Iowa, John McCain, Top Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.