For McCain, son’s duty in Iraq is not a talking point

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) regularly talks about his military experience on the presidential campaign trail, but he draws the line when asked about his sons’ service in the armed forces.

Jimmy McCain, 19, who returned from Iraq in mid-February, is stationed at Camp Pendleton in California. Jack McCain, 21, is poised to graduate from the Naval Academy and could join the Marines as a second lieutenant.

{mosads}At a time when Democrats are calling for a withdrawal of troops from Iraq, McCain has refused to use his children’s experience to strengthen his arguments for keeping the U.S. military in the Middle Eastern country.

Democrats have claimed that a McCain White House would be tantamount to a third term of President Bush’s Iraq strategy. But the dynamic of criticizing McCain on Iraq will be different than for the president, who did not serve in a war and does not have children serving abroad.

GOP strategists say that McCain stands to gain more by keeping his sons’ military credentials off-limits than by drawing on them for political gain.

“He is playing it right. He is not going for the cheap political lines,” said John Feehery, who worked for former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and is a contributor to The Hill’s PunditsBlog.

McCain has yet to mention his sons’ military credentials on his ongoing biographical tour. McCain spoke at his own alma mater, the Naval Academy, on Wednesday, and then traveled to his old flight school in Pensacola, Fla.

McCain has appeared uncomfortable when asked about Jimmy’s deployment to Iraq.

When asked about it last month by Fox commentator Sean Hannity, McCain replied, “We really never talk about our sons. We have two sons in the military but we never talk about it, if that’s all right.”

McCain added, “I am so proud of both of them.”

“It goes to the character of McCain that he typically does not exploit his familial connections,” said Jim Pitts, co-founder of Navigators, a Washington lobby shop. Pitts is a McCain supporter and fundraiser.

McCain mentioned Jimmy in Iowa, when he casually referred to his son’s promotion to lance corporal, and once briefly on his campaign bus talking to a mother whose son died in Iraq. Cindy McCain, the candidate’s wife, cried silently as the mother told her son’s story, according to reports.

McCain’s spokeswoman, Brooke Buchanan, said that his sons’ military experience will be off-limits.

“Out of respect for the men and women who serve around Jimmy and for security reasons, the senator does not discuss his son,” said Buchanan, who asked The Hill not to run an article on McCain’s sons.

Media outlets have reported on McCain’s sons, though coverage of them has not been widespread.

“He feels very uncomfortable. He does not want Jimmy and his comrades to be put at any risk,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), McCain’s closest ally and friend in the Senate.

Security is a real concern for the son of a high-profile senator and potential future president.

McCain is well-aware of the pitfalls of being a high-profile son and target.

When McCain was captured by the North Vietnamese, he was offered early release because his father was an admiral and, at the time, Pacific commander. McCain, knowing that he would be used as a propaganda tool, refused and was beaten repeatedly.

Graham added, “The one thing I can say is that John and Cindy both are desperate that Jimmy’s service be respected, that he get no different treatment than anyone else.”

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) has talked to McCain in private about Jimmy’s service. The two serve on the Armed Services panel, where McCain is the ranking member.

“I know that John McCain is very proud of his son’s service and he talked to me about it many times, but he is certainly not going to exploit it for political purposes,” Collins said.

Even though he is on the other side of the debate when it comes to the Iraq war, Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) knows how hard it is to keep the lid on information about family serving in Iraq.

“I had to say goodbye to my son in the middle of a campaign. Everybody knew it was very difficult for security and other reasons,” Webb said in a short interview. Webb, who wore his son’s Marine Corps’ boots throughout his 2006 Senate campaign as a symbol for all the service members in Iraq, said that he was bombarded with questions about his son while on the stump.

Other members of Congress who have had, or still have, family members in a war zone say that sharing that with the public is a very personal decision.

“A person in public office is conflicted. You can burst with pride about your family overseas, but you equally do not want them to be publicly fully identified,” Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) said.

Wilson’s two sons — one in the Army National Guard and the other a Navy doctor — have both served in Iraq.

Former GOP presidential candidate Rep. Duncan Hunter (Calif.) talked about his Marine son on the campaign trail and also discussed him as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee during the 109th Congress.

Hunter started bringing up his son, who left a lucrative business to join the Marines after Sept. 11, 2001, as a challenge to filmmaker Michael Moore’s claim that lawmakers do not have family members serving in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I did not have a problem, either, with my father talking about me when I was over there,” said Duncan Hunter Jr., who now is running for his retiring father’s seat. “Sen. McCain is higher-profile than my father was and it could put his son in jeopardy and in a spotlight where he does not need to be.”

If McCain is elected president, his sons’ fame would raise questions as to whether they could deploy to war. The military has not faced that situation in more than 50 years. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s son served as a Navy officer in World War II and President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s son was an Army officer in Korea.