Chalk one up for the Marines, A History Lesson

During the 1940s, Metzenbaum practiced law in Cleveland, mostly for labor unions, first the Communications Workers of America and then the International Association of Machinists.
He claims he never represented the Communist Party.
In 1970, Metzenbaum ran for the Senate seat of his former employer, Young, defeating John Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit the earth, in the Democratic primary. But Metzenbaum lost to Robert Taft, Jr. in the general election.

In 1974, when Senator William B. Saxbe (R-OH) resigned from his seat to accept the nomination as U.S. attorney general, Governor Jack Gilligan appointed Metzenbaum to fill out the remainder of Saxbe's term. Metzenbaum ran for election to the seat, but in a bitter Democratic primary, Metzenbaum lost to Glenn, who won the general election.

During this time is when John Glenn came out with the famous "I Have Held a Job" in a debate with Metzenbaum. Metzenbaum referred to Glenn disdainfully as "Colonel Glenn" to emphasize his military background [Glenn was a World War II and Korean War veteran and had retired as a colonel from the Marine Corps in 1965 after twenty two years of service] In 1974 the military was viewed with suspicion and distrust especially by the large portion of the "baby boom" generation that had reached voting age, and that "lead" us now with the same disdain for the military.

Howard Metzenbaum to John Glenn: “How can you run for Senate when you’ve never held a ‘job’?”

Glenn:

• “I served 23 years in the United States Marine Corps. I was through two wars. I flew 149 missions. My plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire on 12 different occasions.

• “I was in the space program. It wasn’t my checkbook, it was my life that was on the line. This was not a 9-to-5 job where I took time off to take the daily cash receipts to the bank.

• “I ask you to go with me, as I went the other day to a Veterans Hospital, and look those men with their mangled bodies in the eye and tell them they didn’t hold a job.

• “You go with me to any Gold Star mother, and you look her in the eye and tell her that her son did not hold a job.

• “You go with me to the space program, and you go as I have gone to the widows and the orphans of Ed White and Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee, and you look those kids in the eye and tell them that their dad didn’t hold a job.
  

• “You go with me on Memorial Day coming up, and you stand on Arlington National Cemetery — where I have more friends than I like to remember — and you watch those waving flags, and you stand there, and you think about this nation, and you tell me that those people didn’t have a job.

“I tell you, Howard Metzenbaum, you should be on your knees every day of your life thanking God that there were some men — SOME MEN — who held a job. And they required a dedication to purpose and a love of country and a dedication to duty that was more important than life itself.

“And their self-sacrifice is what has made this country possible.

“I HAVE HELD A JOB, HOWARD!”

(The above remarks were made during a 1974 debate for the Democratic nomination to a U.S. Senate seat.)