Richard Blumenthal has served as Connecticut's Attorney General for many years - and is widely respected - but recently he took the podium at a ceremony regarding veterans and apparently misrepresented his own service in the Vietnam era. This apparent lie has been exposed by the New York Times, and some are arguing it may lead to the end of his political career.
“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.”This will be an interesting one to watch. Mr. Blumenthal is running to replace Senator Chris Dodd. If he should fall, is there a Democratic candidate who can step in to fill the gap, or is this one seat that the GOP can mark as "safe" for 2010?
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.
3 comments:
Blumenthal has always been the good guy with no bad press. I have voted for him, although I am not of his political party. So I am sure this will hurt him. CT is such a Democratic state that it might not totally kill his chances, but it WILL hurt.
Does he have a speech writer? Not that it matters because he knows what is true and should have corrected himself right there and then. He really has done such an amazing job serving CT and what a shame it would be to find out that is one lie would wipe out his career. It just leads you down such a slippery slope, like what else has he lied about?
I have heard some Vietnam vets call in to radio shows today and they are VERY RESENTFUL of Blumenthal's claim. They put their lives on the line and buried buddies while he had a cushy job in the states. They did not get 5 deferments.
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