Qualifications to Lead

Re “Democrat Lashes Out at Cheney,” Aug 17: Sen. Tom Harkin calling Vice President Dick Cheney a coward for not serving in Vietnam is certainly a new low for Democrats. By this new standard, anyone seeking high office must be a veteran or he is not qualified. I would like to ask Harkin if he now believes President Clinton is a coward.

It is difficult to take seriously anyone who now proclaims candidates in elections must be veterans, even though those same persons did not advocate this before. Would anyone dare call Franklin D. Roosevelt a coward or an incapable leader because he could not serve before leading this nation in World War II?

Mark Bustamante

Alhambra