THE DEMOCRATS’ WAR ON WOMEN: Ashe Schow: The Ernst-truthers of the Huffington Post.

Reinbach admits that under the military’s definition, Ernst is a combat veteran, “because she served in a combat zone.” But Reinbach goes to great lengths to make sure readers know he doesn’t consider her a combat veteran because she “was never in a firefight, or for that matter attacked at all; [her unit] delivered supplies, and later, guarded the front gate and ran perimeter patrol at their home base outside Kuwait City, Camp Arifjan.”

Seriously, every sentence of his hit piece drips with disdain for the senator. “Real combat veterans I spoke to,” Reinbach wrote, before quoting a single Vietnam veteran to back up his claim. That veteran, Larry Hanft, earned the Combat Infantryman’s Badge during his service and does not think Ernst is a combat veteran. Hanft, an Iowa resident and registered Democrat, had already said as much in a letter to the editor during Ernst’s campaign.

Have you no decency, Huffington Post? No decency at all? Well, no:

“Senator Joni Ernst is a combat veteran. Period,” Conway wrote. “Andrew Reinbach manipulated my words, and I am angry and embarrassed that a so-called journalist would deliberately take out of context a small portion of our 15-minute discussion.”

She added: “I never questioned Sen. Ernst’s service, or that of my brothers and sisters in arms; to allow the Huffington Post’s readers to think otherwise is not only a disservice to Sen. Ernst, but to all those who wear the uniform of the United States. In a cheap attempt to besmirch the military service of Sen. Ernst, the Huffington Post instead has insulted all the men and women of the Armed Forces who have deployed in service to their nation.”

Forget it, Jake. It’s HuffPo. Meanwhile, here’s a less delicate take than Ashe’s:

First of all, the stank-ass hippies at the Huffington Post aren’t the arbiters of who is a combat veteran and who isn’t. This sounds like something I’d read at VoteVets or in an IAVA scorecard. I think that Jessica Lynch might take exception with the Huffington Post that truckdrivers aren’t allowed to call themselves “combat soldiers”.

Several people who thought that I’d agree with them have sent me links to the various stories about Ernst complaining that she’s stealing valor. I disagree, not because she’s a Republican, but because she’s a veteran who served in an area that earned her “imminent danger pay”. If she was claiming honors that she didn’t earn, I’d agree, but she hasn’t.

We go on and on about telling the truth, that all military service is honorable without embellishment. Ernst hasn’t said that she was kicking doors or interrogating prisoners or anything else. She has said that it was the luck of the draw that her unit didn’t encounter enemy soldiers or improvised explosives. That’s true, not everyone spends their 20 years in the service in constant danger and in contact with our enemies. She was in Iraq and she led the troops in her command in a way that they were able to complete their mission without any injuries and that is an accomplishment in itself.

Honestly, I wonder if the Dems and their operatives-with-bylines would be launching these attacks if Joni Ernst were a man.

And I wonder why they gave passes to those out-and-out military frauds Tom Harkin, Richard Blumenthal, etc.? Oh, who am I kidding? I don’t wonder at all.