Sen. Jay Rockefeller explains his endorsement of Barack Obama to the Charleston Gazette and he also takes this bizarre shot at John McCain:

Rockefeller believes McCain has become insensitive to many human issues. "McCain was a fighter pilot, who dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet. He was long gone when they hit."

"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."

Rockefeller, who is one year younger than McCain, probably wouldn't know this since he was enjoying the privileges of his station when McCain was bombing Vietnamese with abandon, but the laser-guided munition did not come into service until after McCain became a prisoner of war.

And of course, McCain was engaged in low-level attack on a heavily defended power plant in Hanoi when he was shot down. Rather than dropping bombs from the relative safety of 35,000 feet, McCain and his comrades were willing to put their lives at great risk in order to hit specific, high-value targets without the assistance of guided munitions. Though I'm sure Rockefeller, with his billion dollar trust fund, is infinitely more sensitive to the "human issues" of the average American than John McCain.

The McCain camp just release a statement:

Senator Rockefeller's statement is an insult to all the men and women who are serving or have served in America's military. Had Senator Rockefeller served himself, he would appreciate and understand that most who have been to war emerge with a much deeper concern for humanity than they otherwise might.

What they campaign doesn't note: Rockefeller was in the Peace Corps while McCain was at war. I'm imagining Rockefeller's tour was something similar to the the duty Tom Hanks pulled in Volunteers.