Politics in brief: McCain touts military experience

John McCain, a Vietnam war prisoner, argued Friday that his top rivals for the GOP nomination aren’t qualified to deal with issues like torture – or to be president in wartime – because they never served in the military.

The Arizona senator’s position on an interrogation technique that simulates drowning – he says it constitutes torture and is illegal – puts him at odds with Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson, who haven’t taken such a hard line.

“There’s a clear division between those who have a military background and experience in these issues and people like Giuliani, Romney and Thompson who don’t – who chose to do other things when this nation was fighting its wars,” McCain told reporters after touring a shipyard and taking questions from workers wearing hard hats and blue jeans.

DAVENPORT, Iowa

Richardson airs plan for veterans

Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson on Friday proposed a $15.5 billion plan for military veterans that calls for cutting their income taxes, giving them a health care card to access private care and expanding education benefits.

The New Mexico governor would pay for the plan by collecting certain capital gains taxes, which he said would pull in $25 billion.

He said conditions at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center represents the Bush administration’s “terrible mistreatment of America’s veterans.”

His campaign planned 29 stops in 23 Iowa towns over four days to roll out the plan, which included eliminating federal income tax for all veterans in their first year as civilians, a $2.2 billion cost. It also would reduce federal income taxes for all veterans by 5 percent for life at a cost of $6.1 billion.

Iowa City, Iowa

Huckabee climbs, Edwards Slips

A new University of Iowa poll puts Republican Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, into a virtual tie for second place with Rudy Giuliani. Huckabee was at 12.8 percent; Giuliani at 13.1 percent.

Both badly trail former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who’s at 36 percent. Romney has advertised heavily in Iowa, unlike his opponents.

Among Democrats, Clinton led with 28.9 percent, Obama was second at 26.6 percent, and Edwards placed third at 20 percent.

That’s troubling for Edwards, who’s effectively banking his whole campaign on Iowa. The same poll had him at 26 percent in August.

Concord, N.H.

Good week for Romney

Romney’s campaign got a boost this week when popular New Hampshire Republican Sen. Judd Gregg backed him.

“If you would have said that I would endorse a former governor of Massachusetts, I wouldn’t believe you,” Gregg joked. “But then again, I wouldn’t believe that the Red Sox would ever win two World Series in my lifetime, either.”

Romney continued to lead polls in New Hampshire by an average of 8 percentage points.