Kerry: Romney's behavior on Iran "irresponsible"

(CBS News) Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee for president, said on "CBS This Morning" Thursday that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the Republican front-runner to take on President Obama in November, was "behaving like a irresponsible candidate" in criticizing the president's Iran policy.

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee talked with Charlie Rose about a Washington Post column in which he rebuts a Romney op-ed published earlier in the week. Although Kerry wrote that Mr. Obama was already doing what Romney proposed to do to Iran, he wouldn't say the two men's views were similar.

"I see a profound difference," said Kerry. "The difference is President Obama is acting like a president, a commander in chief and like a, a statesperson, and Mitt Romney is behaving like a irresponsible candidate, frankly, because everything that he laid out in his op-ed President Obama is already doing."

Special Section: Election 2012
Romney: Obama "dawdled" on Iran
McCain fires back at Obama over Iran

Kerry dismissed Romney's attacks on the administration's policy as election-year politics.

"What he's doing is setting up straw men, basically trying to just argue a case, say, 'I'm strong, you're weak,' without any evidence supporting it whatsoever, Charlie," said Kerry. "I mean, everything that Mitt Romney laid out that he said he might do President Obama has done or is in the middle of expanding."

Above, watch John Kerry give his perspective on Iran in the presidential race