Talk:Tom Harkin

Controversies
I deleted the reference to Harkin's absence from John Kerry's Vice Presidential short list. It seemed misleading in the context of the Dean endorsement as the 64 year old Senator was not a likely Vice Presidential hopeful in any case.

Suggestions that Harkin preferred Gephardt should be cited or deleted. The Dean endorsement altogether seems questionable as a 'controversy'. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.173.120.84 (talk) 09:29, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

The citation of the Senator's comment regarding President Chavez leads to an article that does not mention Harkin. SDali2008 —Preceding unsigned comment added by SDali2008 (talk • contribs) 09:40, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

Deleted the following from Controversies section re: Harkin on McCain's military career: "In total, 33 of the 43 United States presidents have had military service, including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Harry Truman. Ten of these have held the rank of Brigadier General or higher, and only three of the 33 performed their military service exclusively in times of peace." This rejoinder is not factual and does not include citations.--Qebono (talk) 23:51, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Harkin was not the chief author of the ADA. It was then-Representative Tony Coehelo. He wrote the ADA (and earlier than 1990) because of his personal experiences with epilepsy. Harkin was a sponsor, but this is different than being an author. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.253.68.133 (talk) 21:35, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Today, I added a link and details about recent article
Re: Early life Changed the order so that the J.D. was in chronological order. 66.243.175.50 17:43, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

If anyone takes issue with that edit, please comment here. 09:07, 16 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Neutral POV
I've dialed back the description of Harkin's '92 service record controversy to report the facts without putting a GOP spin on them: According to the cited articles, Harkin made claims that were true in isolation (i.e., he was a pilot, he flew combat air patrols, he was in Vietnam), but together these statements left a false impression (i.e., Harkin was a pilot who flew combat missions in Vietnam) that Harkin was forced to correct.

Flat assertions that Harkin "falsely claimed" something need to be backed up with a cite to a genuinely false claim (i.e., a statement by Harkin that says "I flew combat missions in Vietnam"), not to a partisan blog or an author with an axe to grind. Let's leave the right-wing talking points where they belong.

As a disclaimer, I have no ties to Tom Harkin aside from being a member of the same party.

71.139.239.154 16:30, 9 February 2006 (UTC) I did cite the exact quote. To make you happy, I changed the cite from Insta-pundit (which is a right wing blog) to the Wall Street Journal article on the same statement. Is David Broder a GOP hack? He is the source. Is Tom Harkin a GOP hack? He is the one who actually said he spent a year flying combat missions in Vietnam.

Did Tom Harkin fly combat missions in Vietnam? No he did not. Did he tell David Broder (as the cite specifically shows) that he did? Yes. Harkin falsely claimed that he flew combat missions in Vietnam. He was called on the claim and had to recant. He didn't "create a false impression" he made a false statement.


 * I've added back the insta pundit source, along with the WSJ article. Although it is a conservative blog it actually gives a bit more context than the WSJ opinion piece.  No harm in having both.  To clarify, the 1979 quote from Harkin appears to come from a Congressional rountable discussion which Broder later quoted from in a book.  It's not entirely clear whether Broder was there personally.  The Insta Pundit source reproduces a section of another book (not Broder's) that suggests Harkin flew about a dozen missions into Vietnam while he was stationed in Japan.  This may require more research.  TMS63112 21:48, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
 * I have taken out both the Insta Pundit and the WSJ opinion piece in favor of a more detailed WSJ article written while Harkin was running for president. I hope the current language fairly reflects the facts as presented in that article. TMS63112 20:37, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Abortion edits
About the Abortion edits, what is POV? Why is it OK to say he is staunchly pro-Israel, and cite to examples, but not point out that he is staunchly pro-abortion and cite to his exact positions. As a disclaimer I will say that I am Catholic, and in fact went to the same high school as Harkin. During the last election his campaign came to my church and distributed flyers pointing out how he is actually "pro-life". I looked into his voting record. The positions that I have cited with regards to Harkin's abortion stands, are his exact positions. Not to point out the obvious but I am a "newbie". If I am stepping out of bounds by using Harkin's own quotes, or by pointing out his actual positions, please let me know. I meant to respond to you directly, but being a newbie I couldn't figure out how. Sorry about that.


 * The problem is not that you cite Harkin's voting record on abortion. The problem is that the language you used in doing so seems intended to condemn his position.  I will try to re-phrase it in a more NPOV manner.  TMS63112 17:20, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Inappropriate tone
I added Inappropriate tone tag to Controversy section mostly because of my problems with some of the language used in describing the Limbaugh incident. For example, the stuff about wasting the Senate's time by making personal attacks on a private citizen. Mike R (talk) 18:15, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Un-sourced Material in Controversies Section
I have removed the following three paragraphs because they lack citations and contribute to the inappropriate tone of the section. Littlebutter (talk) 18:26, 9 January 2008 (UTC)
 * In June 2001, the Des Moines Register reported that Senator Harkin had “inadvertently omitted” $200,000 in Conoco stock owned by his wife Ruth and some $15,000 owned by their daughter Amy on his Senate financial statement.

In 2003/2004 Harkin remained neutral in the race for the Democratic nomination for president, until 11 days before the Iowa caucus, when he endorsed Vermont Governor Howard Dean. Dean was then considered the front runner, but his support plummeted in the final week and he finished a weak third, twenty points behind the winner John Kerry. Harkin stood behind Dean as the Governor delivered his now infamous "Scream" speech on the night of his defeat. Some criticized Harkin for jumping on the Dean bandwagon, while he admitted to some that Missouri Congressman Richard Gephardt was actually his favorite candidate. Harkin soon distanced himself from Dean and urged him to drop out of the race.

In September of 2006 Senator Harkin commented on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's September 20th 2006 United Nations speech in which Chavez referred to President George Bush as the devil. Senator Harkin said that while Chavez's comments were “incendiary,” he could “… understand the frustration, ah, and the anger of certain people around the world because of George Bush's policies”. In September of 2007, Harkin demanded apology from General Pace - the week before Pace's military retirement - for condemning homosexuality and adultery in the military. After Pace mentioned that the UCMJ prohibits both of these activities, Harkin voiced his desire to have the code changed to accommodate homosexuality and adultery. (AP, Sept 27, 2007)

More Unsourced Material in Controversies Section
Propose that the first two "controversies" be deleted and this section be renamed Controversy over military record.

Military service and presidential fitness: The text says that "several media sources" quoted Harkin, but no citations are offered. Furthermore, how is this single observation by Harkin, even if it is quoted accurately, a "controversy"?

Wellstone memorial service: Criticized by some? By whom exactly? None of the three citations are verifiable based on what is provided. Who is Patrick Howe? Joegoodfriend (talk) 22:25, 4 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Without objection, I have updated this section as described above. Joegoodfriend (talk) 01:33, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Bangladesh child labor 1993
The best-selling book Half the Sky has this brief mention of Harkin on page 17: "The reality is that past efforts to assist girls have sometimes back-fired. In 1993, Senator Tom Harkin wanted to help Bangladeshi girls laboring in sweatshops, so he introduced legislation that would have banned imports made by workers under the age of fourteen. Bangladeshi factories promptly fired tens of thousands of these young girls, and many of them ended up in brothels and are presumably now dead of AIDS." Perhaps this can be expanded with a more detailed description of the legislation. No such description appears in the above-quoted book. Binksternet (talk) 06:57, 4 July 2010 (UTC)

Office of Alternative Medicine
From the NCCAM article: A New York Times editorial described the OAM as "Tom Harkin's folly".

Tom harkin`s mother was not Slovakian, but Slovenian. That is evident because her birth surname was Berčič, and also, you can find Tom Harkin on the Wikipedia page of Slovene Americans. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovenian_Americans

Salamander123Salamander123 (talk) 10:04, 7 November 2012 (UTC)

Removing "Cumming, IA" as residence of Tom Harkin
As a legal citizen of Cumming, I know that Tom Harkin does absolutely not live in Cumming. He owns a HOUSE in Cumming, in which his farmer brother, Mike, lives in. The house is just to the north of mine. I am going to remove the residence of Tom Harkin, as I don't know where he lives, but one thing's for sure: he DOES NOT live in Cumming. He is so "out of" Cumming, that he stopped the annual summer party in his house he owns.

Remember, this is all coming from his brother, Mike, and investigations by me. I have LEGALLY looked at documents of the ownership of his house, and he OWNS the house, but according to Mike, he doesn't live there. I am going to remove Cumming.

Sorry for making such a big deal out of it; I just wanted to be sure that you knew why I removed it.

NiklawskiMSTM (talk) 17:38, 3 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Oh? The residence he reported when he last ran for election was 528 N. 43rd Street.  Is that the one you are referring to?  Either way, I've put it back in, pending a source for his new residence.  Remember, for Iowa voting purposes (which is what applies for official residency of officials), residency has a particular meaning.  A lot of the members of Congress "practically" live in D.C. while maintaining residences in their home states. – Philosopher Let us reason together. 17:27, 26 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Since Ruth Harkin reports the same address for her Board of Regents profile, I'm actually inclined to believe it is a real address, not just a pro forma one. Either way, this supports the idea that the residence shouldn't be removed without a source.  – Philosopher Let us reason together. 17:42, 26 January 2013 (UTC)

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