John McCain would like to remind you that he was a P.O.W.

Remember when people -- particularly Republicans -- used to make fun of John Kerry for constantly invoking his service in Vietnam as a campaign credential?

The Wall Street Journal's "Best of the Web" routinely called him the "haughty, French-looking Massachusetts Democrat, who by the way served in Vietnam." His embarrassing "reporting for duty" shtick at the 2004 convention -- complete with a "salute" that was anything but crisp -- still gets made fun of, and rightfully so. And, of course, JibJab hilariously lampooned Kerry's over-reliance on his military resumé by making "I won three Purple Hearts!" a refrain in its classic "This Land" cartoon.

Well, in recent days, it seems John McCain has been channeling John Kerry in this regard. McCain's stint as a prisoner of war in Vietnam has apparently become an all-purpose rebuttal to any charge that the Obama campaign might throw at him, no matter how irrelevant.

First came the response to criticism that McCain acted inappropriately in offering his wife up for a topless beauty pageant at Sturgis. McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said, "These smears on John McCain’s character and faith ... [are] disgraceful. [Americans] know that John McCain's faith and character were tested and forged in ways few can fathom."

Then came this bizarre rebuttal to the charge that McCain heard the questions in advance at the recent Rick Warren evangelical powwow. Said McCain spokeswoman Nicole Wallace: "The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous."

And now, this response to Obama's attack on McCain's "how many houses" gaffe: "This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years -- in prison," Rogers told the Washington Post.

Jeez. How non-sequitur can you get?

Newsweek's Howard Fineman says the McCain camp is "going to" the POW defense "way too many times ... [McCain has] wisely for many years stayed away from it as a political tool, he really did. But now it not only defines him, it’s become a crutch in the campaign. And I think he is in danger of trivializing it."

Time's Ana Marie Cox (formerly of Wonkette) calls the latest POW reference a "head-spinning non sequitur, designed to distract us from something mildly troubling with the assertion of something impressive." She says the campaign's "constant invocation of the candidate's POW past is weird bordering on irrational."

And Politico's Ben Smith writes:

It does seem like they're flirting with Giuliani/9/11 territory here, in which at subject that seems utterly immune to humor, used as a first resort, suddenly becomes a running joke among your political enemies and your late night comic friends.

McCain himself, it should be noted, doesn't tend to talk about his prisoner-of-war experience in random contexts; but his staff and surrogates have been doing it a bit lately.

As should go without saying, I have the utmost respect for McCain's service (and Kerry's, and every other veteran's). But constant and/or irrelevant recitations thereof, in pursuit of political ambition, are really quite unseemly. Discussing your service in biographical ads, or making occasional, pertinent references to it on the campaign trail, is fine. Burnishing it as a top-line credential, or as an all-purpose response to anything negative that anyone might say about you, not so much.

Moreover, attempting to declare any and all criticism, or at least "character" criticism, off-limits because McCain was a P.O.W., is no better than Obama's camp supposedly declaring any and all criticism off-limits because he's black (though, notwithstanding the hyperactive fears of Glenn Reynolds and others, this has not actually happened, IMHO).

The bottom line is this: Senator McCain, everybody knows you were a P.O.W. -- and a particularly heroic one, at that, having refused an offer of special treatment out of loyalty to your compatriots. That says a lot about your character, and we're deeply grateful for your service and sacrifice. (Senator Obama says this all the time on the stump, and he's right.) Now, tell us again, Senator, how exactly do you plan to fix the country if you're elected president? That's what matters. That's what voters care about. That's what this "swing voter" is going to base his decision on. Constructing sentences out of -- to borrow a phrase -- a noun, a verb, and "P.O.W.," is not going to convince us to vote for you.

P.S. Admittedly, the charges that McCain has been using his P.O.W. experience to rebut -- i.e., the How Many Houses gaffe, the Cone of Silence controversy, and the Cindy's Boobies kerfuffle -- are also totally non-substantive, and unrelated to the future of their country, in their own right. Both campaigns have really gone off the deep end with this sort of nonsense (which Obama once derided as part of the "silly season" in politics), and they both need to stop. But, in my mind, the silliness of the charges being rebutted only serves to further highlight the inappropriateness and unseemliness of using the "P.O.W. defense" in response to such trivial matters.