Tom Harkin: Phony Soldier

*above image from the book, "Stolen Valor : How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of Its Heroes and Its History" by B. G. Burkett

-----------
When will the so-called educated (#3 in the nation) people of Iowa rid themselves of the serious waste of skin that is Tom Harkin?

The man is seriously deranged or so un-informed that it literally scares me that people actually believe the crap that comes out of his pie hole.

Tom Harkin, 1992 Presidential run pre-announcement stump speech preparation:

"...Tom Harkin, Viet Nam combat pilot...no, better make that Viet Nam vet...uh oh...nevermind...Viet Nam era veteran...there. That's a little easier for the idiots who vote for me to understand."

And he has just the right amount of brains to be able to read the spoon-fed talking points from Media Matters...a bunch of lazy bottom feeders for lazy bottom feeder journalists who don't know that Google results go beyond just the first link on the search results.

Am I being too harsh?

Tom "the turkey" Harkin...


I have dealt with Tom Harkin as an on-air host a number of times...never once securing an interview from him because he wanted the questions I would ask written down for him in advance.

Any other journalist who has ever been in on one of his so-called "conference calls" with the media knows the truth.

Tom Harkin couldn't complete an original thought if his phony Viet Nam era ass were on the line.

Most of the other times his audio is ever used by radio journalists comes pre-packaged from his staffers who write both the questions and answers for him and he simply records them and sends out a press release for lazy deadline-starved small time news people to fill their "newscasts" with. Seriously. I used to be one of those until I wised up.

Back in the old days, you used to have to call up a certain number listed on the press release sent out by his Senate office. That number was usually hooked to a coupler that would automatically answer and start playing the audio outlined in the press release.

I kept wondering why the audio always sounded so canned. Why there were never any so-called "vocal pauses" that everyone has...some "ahhs" or "umms" mixed in...

They never sounded very "natural" and had a machine like quality to them.

In my early radio career in small town Osage, or Estherville, or even Boone...it was all we ever had, so I ran with it. After a while, I figured even your average doofus listening to a 5-watt bulb of a radio station could probably tell they were canned, so I stopped using them because I thought the audience was smarter than that.

Apparently not. Because every once in a while...I still hear a few of his clips used on a certain News/Talk radio station within range of my radio reception.

If you can't tell he's reading those so-called "comments" presented in most news stories...you're probably stupid enough to still be voting for him.

Speaking of phony soldiers...

Tom "the turkey" Harkin is a supreme example of a phony soldier himself. Just ask him...

Wall Street Journal Story, 1992: Candidate Harkin Stretches the Truth

"After I got out of college," he says in his standard stump speech, "I spent eight years, eight months and eight days as a Navy pilot." His military record, though, shows he served five years on active duty, from Nov. 21, 1962, until Nov. 30, 1967. The senator arrives at the eight-year figure by adding on three years in the ready reserve.

"Active duty" he was...probably just like John Kerry. Inventing stuff he could use on the dopes back in his home town PO Box in Iowa.

In 1979, Mr. Harkin, then a congressman, participated in a round-table discussion arranged by the Congressional Vietnam Veterans' Caucus. "I spent five years as a Navy pilot, starting in November of 1962," Mr. Harkin said at that meeting, in words that were later quoted in a book, Changing of the Guard, by Washington Post political writer David Broder. "One year was in Vietnam. I was flying F-4s and F-8s on combat air patrols and photo-reconnaissance support missions. I did no bombing."

Tom Harkin. Phony soldier. Because he never did any of that...

How much time did he actually spend in Vietnam? "I wouldn't really know," he says.

But what about those combat air patrols and the photo-reconnaissance support missions? He says he did fly combat air patrols, in Cuba, in 1965 and 1966.

Wrong side of the planet, genius.

In explaining his Vietnam experience at that congressional round-table in 1979, Sen. Harkin says that in retrospect "maybe I didn't say it right."

In April of 1981, Mr. Harkin told Harold E. Roberts, publisher of the Creston, Iowa, News Advertiser, that in Japan he was assigned to a squadron where "we flew many missions to Vietnam and the Philippines."

Whoa! I guess he forgot he said that "I wouldn't really know" part from 1979 because he repeated the lie a mere two years later. Hmmm....

And in a short April 1, 1980, statement in the Congressional Record attacking the Veterans Administration for the way it was handling claims related to the herbicide Agent Orange, Mr. Harkin said that "as a Vietnam veteran in Congress, I feel particularly responsible for seeing that this issue continues to command our attention."

Maybe HE was on drugs all those times he lied and tried to slip it by the lazy media...


-----------
-----------

Read Greg's NEW eBook! How after years of piddling around, he finally made an income (after expenses) on the internet!

Free Summary. Low Cost. One Neat Idea