That's US Senator Tom Harkin with Partnership for Play Every Day and, as America learned last week, the February 15, 2007 event must have been a very trying and scary time for Harkin. If you study the photo closely, you can almost hear Harkin whimpering, "I forgot to get my cootie shot! Don't let them get too close, please God, don't let them get too close!"
From the Friday "Iraq snapshot:"
Senator Tom Harkin voted for the Iraq War by voting, in 2002, to authorize force. Tom Alex (Des Moinses Register -- link has text and video) reports that a 12-year-old was arrested as Harkin's office in Des Moines, Frankie Hughes. Her 'crime'? The 12-year-old refused to leave the office. The 12-year-old girl was a 'threat' to Senator Tom Harkin and his staff. The full grown senator and his full grown staff were a-scared of a 12-year-old girl. Frankie Hughes was there "sitting in a chair and refusing to leave" to protest the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. The 12-year-old girl sitting in a chair, during business hours, was a 'threat' -- apparently a clear and present danger. On top of that, Alex reports, the day after the arrest, police showed up to serve Frankie's mother Renee Espeland with a misdemeanor charge of "contributing to the delinquency of a minor."
Tom Harkin, 70-years-old and afraid of 12-year-old girls. We searched Vanity Fair's archives in vain for a Proust Questionnaire with Harkin. Since none existed, we created one.
What is your current state of mind?
Highly confident. Why? What did you hear? Who said it?
What are your biggest fears?
Republican majorities, spiders and 12-year-old girls.
What or who is the greatest love of your life?
Not to be immodest but I've always felt no one has ever understood or appreciated me as much I have.
Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?
I would say, from David Broder's Changing of the Guard: Power and Leadership in America where a young flyboy by the name of Tom Harkin flew "combat air patrols and photo-reconnaissance" in Vietnam. I found that story riveting. If untrue.
Who are your heroes in real life?
I would again say Tom Harkin. I don't think you can go wrong with Tom Harkin. In fact, that's probably going to be my 2016 re-election slogan: "I don't think you can go wrong with Tom Harkin."
What is it you most dislike?
12-year-old girls.
Back to the real world, Matthew Rothschild (The Progressive) reported on the incident Saturday.