Monday, May 17, 2010
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal Lies
I have no idea how these statements could be construed as something other than a lie:
“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.
[...]
Sometimes his remarks have been plainly untrue, as in his speech to the group in Norwalk. At other times, he has used more ambiguous language, but the impression left on audiences can be similar.In an interview on Monday, the attorney general said that he had misspoken about his service during the Norwalk event and might have misspoken on other occasions. “My intention has always been to be completely clear and accurate and straightforward, out of respect to the veterans who served in Vietnam,” he said.
But an examination of his remarks at the ceremonies shows that he does not volunteer that his service never took him overseas. And he describes the hostile reaction directed at veterans coming back from Vietnam, intimating that he was among them.
In 2003, he addressed a rally in Bridgeport, where about 100 military families gathered to express support for American troops overseas. “When we returned, we saw nothing like this,” Mr. Blumenthal said. “Let us do better by this generation of men and women.”
I can’t say that I would respect him for his choice if he admitted to doing everything that he could to avoid the draft, but I would understand. I have significant moral qualms with conscription and fully understand anyone who simply does not want to go off to war. But lying--and, yes, to say that you served in Vietnam or that you were mistreated when you returned constitutes words used with the intent to mislead--and consistently misleading people about your service is offensive.
Voting against him seems too small; he should be heckled out of the race.
Hat tip to One Fine Jay.
Comments & Trackbacks
If you go to my site and do a search for Blumenthal you can see how slimy he is. He doesn’t do anything unless he feels it can get him elected.
What a scumbag. The bench has to be deeper than that in Connecticut. My fellow Dems should throw him out.
People misspeak, and because politicians speak a lot, there’s lots of opportunities to misspeak. So if he had said it once or twice, I might be able to forgive him. But he seems to have pretty consistently lied, omitted, confused, and prevaricated--all with the apparent intent to leave the impression that he’s a war veteran. It’s actually a federal crime. The good AG should look up the Stolen Valor Act and get himself a defense lawyer.
I agree with you 100%. I have serious issues with the draft. I also have serious issues with every armed conflict the US has gotten itself into since WWII. If he was anti-war, as it appears he was, he should have proudly owned that position and run on it. Even people who disagreed with that position could still respect him for having it. But who can respect someone who is just a blatant liar on any issue, let alone one so grave as this?