Dickie B may be finished

[bigwillq]

Not sure if this has been posted.


CT Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, the front runner to earn the Democratic nomination for US Senate (to replace Dodd), never served in Vietnam as he previously has said.

Ut oh. Not good. I really liked Blumenthal, too, but (if true), why do politicians have to lie about stuff like this? You either served, or you didn't. No biggie. VET groups can't be pleased by this revelation. We'll see what happens.



SNIP
At a ceremony honoring veterans and senior citizens who sent presents to soldiers overseas, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut rose and spoke of an earlier time in his life.

“We have learned something important since the days that I served in Vietnam,” Mr. Blumenthal said to the group gathered in Norwalk in March 2008. “And you exemplify it. Whatever we think about the war, whatever we call it — Afghanistan or Iraq — we owe our military men and women unconditional support.”

There was one problem: Mr. Blumenthal, a Democrat now running for the United States Senate, never served in Vietnam. He obtained at least five military deferments from 1965 to 1970 and took repeated steps that enabled him to avoid going to war, according to records.



SNIP


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/nyregion/18blumenthal.html?hp

[IndianaGreen]

1. He is finito!

Like you, I don't know why politicians have to lie about military service. It always blows up in their faces.

[bigwillq]

2. I edited to add a bit of the article

in case people didn't want to click on the link.

Yeah, it amazes me.

[razorman]

26. I especially do not understand the lies from people who actually served,

albeit perhaps not in combat. If you wore the uniform and performed your job to the best of your ability, you have nothing to be ashamed of, and no reason to embellish. Anyone who served honorably has done their share.

[msongs]

3. is there a good backup candidate? sounds like he is toast. nt

[bigwillq]

8. Not really.

It was his seat to lose in both the primary and in the GE.

Blumenthal had a really poor first debate, too, a few weeks ago, but it seemed like he still had enough time to recover from that. He leads in all the polls against both DEMs and REPs.

[Webster Green]

4. What an idiot!

:rofl:

[dumpdabaggers]

5. Now Democrats may indeed lose the senate.

Where do we find these people?

[Cha]

6. That's just super weird..

why would anyone lie about anything..especially something so easily checked and monumental as serving in Vietnam?

[elleng]

7. Holy s...t!

what a jerk.

[bigwillq]

9. Video of Blumenthal saying he served

I am at work, don't have flash player installed on this computer, so I haven't viewed the video yet. But here is the link for those interested.


http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/05/17/nyregion/1247467839994/blumenthal-says-he-served-in-vietnam.html

[villager]

10. Yet chickenhawk GOPpers claiming to be warriors are never called to account...

n/t

[Raine1967]

28. +1 AS I said down thread...

We had a guy sitting in office claiming to be POTUS who went AWOL.


My bullshit barometer is going off here.

[phleshdef]

11. I'm sorry, but you'd have to be suffering from a mental illness to believe you can lie about...

...something like that so blatantly and it not come out.

[Cha]

14. Kinda my thought..

and why would you even want to do that in the first place?

He's obviously Intelligent or he wouldn't be where he is today but I wouldn't want a Senator like that ..just like I don't want lieman.

[PM Martin]

15. Marc Ambinder says that Blumenthal is decrying this "hit piece".

http://twitter.com/marcambinder

[Cha]

17. THat's encouraging..thank you.

It's not like there haven't been hit pieces before.

[PM Martin]

18. The NY Times lied to get the Iraq war going.

Aside from Krugman, the Times is garbage.

[KingFlorez]

20. I can definitely understand that line of thinking

It does seem very convenient.

[xchrom]

12. Recommend

[PM Martin]

13. Marc Ambinder says that Blumenthal is decrying this "hit piece".

http://twitter.com/marcambinder

Did the New York Times, the same New York Times that lied to us and got us into the illegal Iraq war whoring for the right wing again?

[bigwillq]

21. They could be.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

[karynnj]

30. I think it will depend on exactly what he has said in direct quotes

Reading the MA papers, I regularly have read things where Senator Brown has referred to himself being in the military and always giving his rank. When this is done while speaking of his utterly unexceptional trip to Afghanistan to imply some expertise, it is just as bad. Yet I think he was never assigned overseas and has worked as a JAG officer in the US.

You also had Ronald Reagan speaking of his service in WWII - even though his assignment was in Hollywood. Bush intentionally allowed his people to push the idea that "he could" have been sent to Vietnam and it was dangerous flying fighter planes. (ignoring he was grounded and the candidate with a pilot's license in 2004 was Kerry.) I notice the NYT points out the truth here - the National Guard, except for a very few exceptions, did not go to Vietnam.

There always have been somethings that become media CW, even though there is no original source that goes back to the candidate and often in spite of the candidate correcting the story (which does not seem to have happened here). Both John Kerry and Hillary Clinton were often referred to as valedictorians - though they weren't. Kerry always spoke of being asked to make that speech because of the prizes he won on the debate team and in Tour of Duty, spoke of not being a conscientious student. Hillary in her autobiography spoke of wanting to drop out in her semester, which was not very successful. (Both had at least some Ds in their first semester and there is no way that can be averaged out and result in being the top student.) Hillary was given the speech because she was class President.

Here, the real test might be his campaign biographies and those on his various government job websites. Even there, if it speaks of going to Vietnam, it likely was written by a staffer - and errors have been made on official web sites. It sounds like his normal comment was a borderline comment - that he served in the marine corps reserve in the Vietnam era. Following form that and using "we" instead of I would have made this misleading - as are Brown's comments, but not untrue. From some quotes this crossed that borderline to copy comments that John Kerry rightfully as made for years on standing with the troops even if you are against the war.

[KingFlorez]

16. We'll see what happens

Bad as it is, I would hope that the teabaggers don't get their mitts on this seat. This is the only way the Republicans could win the seat, their candidates are the head of the WWE and a reject Congressman, not stellar choices.

[IndianaGreen]

19. CNN is talking about it

Anderson Cooper asked Paul Begala about it.

Begala called it a "catastrophic mistake."

[karynnj]

32. Begala would have made up 6 different explanations for this if it were Bill Clinton

In fact, he might want to "rewind" his mind to the series of half truths (or .001 truths) Clinton told about how he avoided the draft. Apparently, that was not a "catastrophic mistake". Why not mention that Ronald Reagan spoke of fighting in WWII, though he was assigned to ....Hollywood.

It looks like Blumenthal usually used that he was in the Marine Corps Reserve in the Vietnam era. That is the truth. Generational comments using "we" referring to the broader Vietnam era extended military are a stretch, but still only likely to have people misinterpret. (A modern day equivalent, is the JR Senator from MA who often speaks of "being in the military" and of his rank. Especially when he implies this gives him unique credibility on the Armed Services Committee (where Reed graduated from West Point and there are many other veterans, such as McCain.), this is intended to give the impression he served in Iraq or Afghanistan.

What this may come down to is Blumenthal clarifying what Blumenthal did and correcting the record.

[Perky]

22. Hey if Hillary can escape Tuzla-gate the he can survive this

He needs to own this saying it was a stupid thing to say don't make light of it. Ig he did it more than onve.....He is toast

[IndianaGreen]

23. He did it more than once, according to CNN

He better get ahead of this story before he gets run over by it.

[karynnj]

33. Hillary did Tuzla at least 4 times

Here, it was said that he usually said that he was in the Marine Corps Reserve in the Vietnam era. The comments if he said "we" are borderline as he is speaking of the expanded military.

You mention Hillary, but do you remember the series of lies and omissions the Clinton campaign put out on his evasion of the Vietnam War? Admittedly, the two types of lies are different. If there is a pattern of Blumenthal comments that actually speak of Vietnam - he is dead. The simple difference of the word, "we" and "I" could be the difference between a lie and a misleading statement.

Begala here was beyond useless, but this is no surprise. I don't think he has defended anyone except Bill Clinton. (In 2004, he blasted Bush, but did very little to defend a genuine war hero with one of the cleanest records of public service there is.)

[stevenleser]

24. Perhaps he meant to say, "I served DURING Vietnam?"

I've served during Panama and Desert Shield/Storm and that is how I say it. I can see how someone would make the mistake of saying one instead of the other during a public speech. He should have corrected it though.

[PM Martin]

25. He was in the Marine reserves during the Vietnam era.

[depakid]

36. The guy's a lawyer- he knows (or oiht to know) better.

[Raine1967]

27. I want to see what he has to say -- THAT said --

How was this allowed to continue for so long?

A friend suggested it was a lack of scrutiny, and I understand that idea - BUT -- this man made it to AG of Connecticut -- is there THAT much of a lack of scrutiny ?

I'm not excusing him -- but I really have a problem with this situation. This should have come out months if not YEARS ago.

I really want to see what he has to say about all of this. This is why you have good campaign directors -- they are supposed to make sure this kind of stuff doesn't happen. It's very damning stuff.

On the other hand -- B*sh went AWOL and managed somehow to become the pResident of the United States.

[boppers]

29. Looks like he did it repeatedly.

Once is a gaffe. Repeatedly, throughout your career, not so much.

[romantico]

31. Blumenthal is done

Blumenthal is finished. This really pisses me off! How dumb can he be? If he said it once, it could be dismissed but he said it several times.Only way he could recover is if they find something just as bad on Linda Macmahon. I thought I heard at one time there was a rather damaging video of her from years ago. Probably nothing if she has made it this far. I think Blumenthal just handed Chris Dodd's seat to Linda. IDIOT!

[Jennicut]

34. And all these years he never made a huge mistake like this. Incredibly disappointing.

I don't want McMahon as my Senator, one idiot is enough. Well, there is always the press conference to see what he has to say.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

35. He needs to issue an unwaffly forceful mea culpa

about how he regrets that his choice of words may have given the mistaken impression that he personally served in Viet Nam when all he ever meant to imply is that he served during the Viet Nam era but that he takes full responsibility for his inaccuracies.

Still probably won't save him.

Amazing that this hasn't come up before.

In his defense just a tiny tiny little bit in reference to his points about the public not supporting the military: during that time, people in the military were often reviled and it didn't matter if you were active duty or a reserve - the haircut was always a tip-off. It is a sign of our maturity as a country I think that we are now able to realize that the soldiers go where they are ordered and it's their civilian leaders who choose the reasons and the battlefields.

[greencharlie]

37. that'll make a KILLER campaign TV ad... yeah he's toast. Get a better candidate! nt

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

38. There are a couple of other prospects, but no one has the

name recognition of Blumenthal.

Merrick Alpert has a good resume, but is a relative unknown. He got one vote at our DTC meeting.

I wonder if we can draft Teddy Kennedy Jr. ???? He's got the name recognition and the money and the machine.....


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_election_in_Connecticut,_2010

Merrick Alpert and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal squared-off in a debate highlighting important issues. On healthcare, Alpert revealed that he supports a single-payer system. Blumenthal explained that pool-purchasing powers should be explored. Alpert presented information as to how insurance rates have skyrocketed in Connecticut since the Attorney General took office. On the topic of war, Blumenthal pledged his support of President Obama's current plan. Alpert expressed that, being a former peacekeeper in Bosnia, he understands what policies work and which ones do not. The current one does not. Alpert set out a plan for the withdrawal of troops from the current war in Afghanistan. On a question concerning relations with Cuba, Blumenthal explained that it would take time, and that he would put together a panel of Cuban-American people to decide the best course of action. Alpert explained that he would vote on the issue that night. <25>


This race was a lock until today. The Repubs won't let this die down. What a dumb mistake to make.

[Hippo_Tron]

39. I didn't know it was possible to lose a 10 seat majority due to simple incompetence

But between the shitty appointments Dem Governors have made to replace Obama's cabinet picks and picking shit candidates like Giannoulias, Coakley, and now Blumenthal apparently it is possible. If Dems lose the House this year it may be due to the economy. If they lose the Senate it will be entirely due to their own stupidity.

[DrToast]

40. I'm not sure he's done, but here' the sad thing

If he was a Republican, this would be no problem. It's only because we actually give a shit about honesty in our politicians that could hurt him.