redblueamerica.com

Can we all agree that criticizing a war hero is not the same thing as criticizing the war heroism? Apparently John McCain can't.

Asked about Dole's letter on the FOX News' "FOX & Friends" Tuesday, Romney, who has tried to portray himself as a genuine conservative alternative to McCain, responded: "It's probably the last person I would have wanted write a letter for me. I think there's a lot of folks who tend to think that maybe John McCain's race is bit like Bob Dole's race. That it's the guy who's next in line, the inevitable choice."

McCain lost no time in jumping on Romney's critique of Dole.

"I think he should apologize," McCain told reporters aboard his campaign plane. "This is no way to end his campaign, by attacking a genuine American war hero." Dole was wounded in Europe during World War II and lost most of the use of one arm.

That's just silly, and McCain of all people should know it. And really, it's of a piece of his allegation that Romney was advocating for a quick withdrawal from Iraq -- he's trying to make Romney look like the GOP's cariacature of John Kerry. Kerry didn't deserve it, and neither does Romney.

And for what it's worth, Romney is right. The GOP in 1996 looked a lot like it does this year: A bit depressed, not really thrilled with its choices and expecting defeat in November. If Romney had been smart, he would've said something like "Senator Dole is right -- we're all on the Republican team, and we'll need to pull together this fall no matter the nominee. But I expect to be the nominee." Just because his gratuitous insult was correct doesn't mean it wasn't a gratuitous insult. But it's not worth attacking it on the grounds that McCain attacked it, either.