“All she does, guys, is talk about her service”

Republican Rep. Joe Walsh of Illinois on Wednesday stood by earlier comments questioning his congressional opponent, an Iraq war veteran and double-amputee, for speaking too much about her military service.

“She is a hero, and that demands our respect, but it doesn’t demand our vote. All she does, guys, is talk about her service,” Walsh said on CNN’s “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.”…

In his original remarks on Sunday, Walsh lauded Sen. John McCain’s modesty in talking about his well-known background as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. Walsh said McCain’s 2008 Republican presidential advisers repeatedly pushed the senator to talk more about his story, but he was strongly reluctant to make that a focus of his campaign.

“That’s what’s so noble about our heroes. Now I’m running against a woman who, my God, that’s all she talks about,” Walsh said. “Our true heroes, it’s the last thing in the world they talk about. That’s why we’re so indebted and in awe of what they’ve done.”