A noun. A verb. And a POW camp.

I’m not sure if you’re aware of it or not, but I’ve been astonished to learn this week that John McCain was a POW! I know he never mentions it, but it seems to be the only thing all the speakers in Minneapolis/St. Paul can get out. Bush, Thompson, Huckabee, Giuliani, Palin — each of them seem to have nothing better to talk about.

Wait a second. Come to think of it, maybe I have heard this refrain before.

While criticizing a proposed Woodstock museum, McCain said he wasn’t sure what there was to celebrate. After all, he was all “tied up” during the music festival.

On healthcare, McCain aides have declared their boss knows what it is like to get inadequate care “from another government.”

When confronted about having received advance notice of the questions at the Saddleback forum, a McCain spokeswoman stated, “The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous.”

When McCain’s people came to his defense after he couldn’t recall how many houses he owned, they said, “This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years — in prison.”

When McCain tried to defend him lack of recall on Leno, he said, “Could I just mention…I spent five and a half years in a prison cell. I didn't have a house, I didn't have a kitchen table, I didn't have a table, I didn't have a chair...”

This is the same McCain who feigned insult when Gen. Wesley Clark dared to suggest that having been a POW doesn’t qualify you for the presidency. When asked, on Face the Nation, how his Vietnam experience prepared him for the Oval Office, McCain recoiled in his chair, uttering a distasteful, “Please!”

It’s time for McCain to lose the POW propaganda.

It cheapens and devalues the experiences of millions of veterans — including his and mine. He and his people need to stop using his experience in Vietnam as a shield to deflect answering the real, tough questions.

Stop hiding behind your service, Senator. I can’t help but admire and respect you and your service record, to say nothing for the horrors you lived through. But it’s time to lose the POW crutch. Enough already.