Richard Blumenthal-Phony

Up until today, I had never heard of Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (D), who is who running for Chris Dodd's senate seat. Watching his staged press conference from the Veterans of Foreign Wars office in West Haven, Connecticut was an eye opener when it comes to chutzpah.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/05/18/connecticuts-blumenthal-confronted-false-claims-vietnam-war-service/



Here's what he said in 2008:




So here is this guy, who is a dead ringer for Eliot Spitzer, going around for years claiming to be a Viet Nam veteran. That is until now when the NY Times breaks a story that Blumenthal was never in Viet Nam. He was a Marine reservist in the 1970s doing 6 months of active duty in South Carolina.

So now, we are treated to this press conference at VFW with two of his supporters giving opening speeches with high praise for Blumenthal while slamming the Times for its "vicious" attack.

Then a smiling Blumenthal stepped up to the mike looking like a figure right out of central casting for one of those "squeaky clean" politicians who gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He talked about how proud he was of his military service in the reserves during the 1970s and how he enlisted by getting the recruiter's phone number out of the Yellow Pages (no help from anyone). He talked about having made "misstatements" for which he took "full responsibility", but that they were absolutely unintentional. (He didn't use the word "lie"). At one point, he explained that what he had meant to say was "when I served DURING Viet Nam" rather than "When I served IN Viet Nam".

Drop out of the senate race? No way. What is it about our political system that we get so many characters like Richard Blumenthal?

First of all, no matter how much Blumenthal has supported veterans issues and attended military funerals, I cannot see how he could hold that press conference in a building he has no business being in. Secondly, is he, in fact, a member of VFW? If so, he must have lied to get in.

Secondly, I myself am a Viet Nam era Veteran. That means that I served in the military DURING the Viet Nam war, but was never sent to Viet Nam. I was stationed in Germany during my 3-year hitch. Never in my most drunken stupor could I imagine myself misrepresenting my military record by claiming to have been in Viet Nam when I was not. Yet Blumenthal repeatedly made these statements and is on videotape saying it. These are not misstatements; these are lies. This guy is John Edwards Jr. without the babe and the baby.

So how does this story end? Do Connecticut voters elect this jerk anyway? (Look how many times they elected Chris Dodd in spite of all his shenanigens.) Sure glad I live in California, where we don't have these kinds of problems.

Say, did I ever tell you about the time back in 1975 when I hit the home run to win the World Series for the Cubs?

"Way to go, Fousesquawk!"

(Apologies to Gabby Hartnett)