Consider this an extension of the last post on pansy GOPers. This would be the third fourth time a Democratic politician has criticized John McCain’s military experience. The latest occurrence involves a prominent Obama supporter, who calls McCain a “self-promoter”.

A prominent local Barack Obama backer bashed John McCain’s military record Monday, calling the Republican presidential candidate a “self-promoter.”

In a nearly-half hour speech, Democratic congressional candidate Bill Gillespie praised Obama, his party’s leading White House hopeful…

“Admirals’ sons,” Gillespie said, unopposed for the Democratic nomination in the 1st Congressional District held by Republican Rep. Jack Kingston, “were treated like royalty. They were privileged people. They were given a silver spoon. Their careers were prepared for them.”

Gillespie, a former Army officer who served in Iraq, said McCain was the kind of admiral’s son who became a “maverick.”

McCain, Gillespie added, was “somebody who needed to stand out, someone that needed to draw attention to themselves and … was usually out for themselves.”

He said his “heart grieves” for McCain’s suffering as a POW.

“After that,” Gillespie said, “he was somewhat of a celebrity and it went to his head. … I think he was a self-promoter for the last four years (in the Navy.)

Asked to cite specific examples, Gillespie responded, “I don’t have one right now.”

So as with at least two New York Times articles, Gillespie makes major accusations against McCain without being able to cite any, you know, actual evidence to back them up.

Anyway, as I said at the beginning of the post, this isn’t the first time a prominent Democrat has gone after McCain’s military experience. Example 2:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s family background as the son and grandson of admirals has given him a worldview shaped by the military, “and he has a hard time thinking beyond that,” Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Ia., said Friday.

“I think he’s trapped in that,” Harkin said in a conference call with Iowa reporters. “Everything is looked at from his life experiences, from always having been in the military, and I think that can be pretty dangerous.”

Harkin said that “it’s one thing to have been drafted and served, but another thing when you come from generations of military people and that’s just how you’re steeped, how you’ve learned, how you’ve grown up.”

“But now McCain is running for a higher office. He’s running for commander in chief, and our Constitution says that should be a civilian,” Harkin said. “And in some ways, I think it would be nice if that commander in chief had some military background, but I don’t know if they need a whole lot.”

His line of reasoning makes no sense, but we’re looking at examples of Democratic attacks, not trying to make sense of sheer stupidity. Example 3:

“McCain was a fighter pilot, who dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet. He was long gone when they hit,” Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. said.

“What happened when they [the missiles] get to the ground? He doesn’t know. You have to care about the lives of people. McCain never gets into those issues.”

That’s an interesting example, because not only did Rockefeller attack McCain, he went after fighter pilots in general. Rockefeller has never served in the U.S. Armed Forces, for the record.

Example 4 is the liberal rag known as the New York Times, claiming McCain was “sealed away” from the lessons of war while he was being tortured for 5 1/2 years. Nevermind that McCain even voluntarily got an assignment at the National War College to study the war and the lessons learned.

This is at least the fourth time the left has smeared John McCain’s heroic military career. As Jim Geraghty writes:

To quote Auric Goldfinger, “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it’s enemy action.”