McCain's Scary, Birthing a Porcupine and Chill, Bill

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin is giving us a few things to talk about. He rips on McCain, defends Hillary's choice to stay in, tells Bill to chill and refuses to discuss private talk with his wife.

This is from his conference call with Iowa reporters Thursday morning. It's rather long. I picked out the highlights. The number at the beginning of each of the following lines shows you where to slide the bar so you can get right to the comment.

Listen here:

3:30 won’t say recession because of the psychological effects of the word

6:27 when will Harkin (who is an undecided Iowa superdelegate) decide? he hopes he won’t have to. he thinks the dems race will be decided before the convention. and then at the convention, he wants dems to eliminate the superdelegate system.

6:55 Hillary should not end her campaign

11:30 Bill needs to "chill out"

12:20 Hillary and Barack have received instructions of no personal attacks. Stick to the issues.

13:00 He won’t say whether his wife, Ruth (who is a prominent Hillary supporter and used to work for Bill) is pushing him to endorse Hillary.

13:50 Trying to come up with a new farm bill is like “giving birth to a porcupine”

26:10 talks about John McCain’s temper…"it can be scary”

The Repub of Party of Iowa isn't too thrilled with the "scary" comment. Here's the release:

(DES MOINES) – Republican Party of Iowa Communications Director Tim Albrecht issued the following statement today in response to Sen. Tom Harkin’s comments during a conference call he held today:

“Tom Harkin’s remarks are shameful. Sen. McCain has honorably served his country, and deserves admiration and respect. Perhaps Sen. Harkin should focus on his own party’s presidential race, where there is plenty of mud to go around. Unfortunately, Tom Harkin’s liberal record mirrors that of his would-be nominee, and he goes to excruciating lengths to distance himself from it every 6 years, when his own name is on the ballot.

“The only thing that is ‘scary’ to Tom Harkin is Sen. McCain’s strength as the Republican nominee.”