Tom Harkin, Fake War Hero, Accuses Rush of Being High On Drugs

Tom Harkin is a Democrat Senator from Iowa who is known as one of the most Liberal and vituperative creatures to inhabit that chamber.

The Democrats, smarting from the backlash to the MoveOn.org ad “General Betray-Us,” are trying to hit back. They are attacking Rush Limbaugh for using the term “phony soldier” in referring to fakes like Jesse MacBeth who claimed to have been and Army Ranger who participated in massacres in Iraq.

The Left is claiming that Rush referred to soldiers who disagree witht he way the war is being fought.

This propelled him into instant hero status on the Left. The only problem was that Jesse was not an Army Ranger, had never been to Iraq and had been discharged from the Army before he left boot camp. Of course Jesse was not the only “phony soldier” that the left has put forward. There is also the famous Scott Thomas Beauchamp who wrote several articles for the New Republic, all of whom where fake. A whole book has been written – Stolen Valor – which gives the long and sordid details about “phony soldiers” who came back from war with claims that later proved to be false.

Interestingly enough, among those “phony soldiers” is Tom Harkin, (D-Iowa) who was a Navy pilot and claimed to have flown combat patrols in Viet Nam. The only problem was that his story is not true, he ferried planes from one place to another and never served in Viet Nam at all.

Glenn Reynolds comments on the way Harkin in referred to by the MSM:

Calling Harkin "a Senator who, like President Bush, flew fighter jets during the Vietnam era without seeing combat but who, unlike President Bush, lied about it," would be more accurate, but it would kind of change the story. Wonder why nobody looked into this? Or, if they knew, bothered to note it?

As with the Kerry Christmas-in-Cambodia story, this is probably more significant for what it tells us about the sorry state of political journalism this campaign season than for what it tells us about the speaker.

One of the more interesting things about people like Tom Harkin is that they have none of the attributes that other people feel as a sense of shame for telling lies. Tom Harkin is a liar.

So sue me.