Revisiting its own 1979 report on the tart-tongued Iowa Democrat, the Journal notes:

"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.'"

The Journal continues:

"That clearly is not an accurate picture of his Navy service. ... Mr. Harkin's Navy record shows his only decoration is the National Defense Service Medal, awarded to everyone on active service during those years. He did not receive either the Vietnam Service medal or the Vietnam Campaign medal, the decorations given to everyone who served in the Southeast Asia theater."

"It turned out Mr. Harkin had not seen combat and was stationed in Japan."

In fact, rather than doing his part to beat back global Communism, Harkin was actually an aider and abettor to Moscow's cause.

Unnoted in today's Journal report: In 1986 Harkin famously traveled to Managua, Nicaragua, to assure Fidel Castro's proxy Daniel Ortega that Senate Democrats were working overtime to thwart President Reagan's efforts to bring Democracy to the region.

With him on the mission - fellow peacenik Sen. John Kerry.

Editor's note: