Dick "Deep In The Shit" Blumenthal Says He's Staying In

Right now the press conference is going on with a bunch of vets saying nice things about him.

Last night I set the over/under line for 'swift boat' references at 3 and took the over.

He says he got no special help to get into reserves, he volunteered by getting the Marine Reserves' number out of the phone book and didn't get any special treatment.

Says his claims of serving in Vietnam were 'a few misplaced words'. Really dude? That's the story you're going to stick too? Good luck with that.

How do you accidentally 'misspeak' when talking about whether or not you were in Vietnam? Give me a break.

He's doubling down and saying he's the true protector and advocate for vets.

He didn't quit when Charlie attacked, er, the Toys for Tots campaign* was slow, he ain't going to quit now.

Reporters not really buying someone could just call up and join the reserves back then.

Says it was "a few misplaced words. In instead of during". Oh BULLSHIT.

Says he was unaware he made those mistaken words. The chutzpah is beyond belief.

Says he will not apologize.

Why the MFM sucks...all someone had to ask him is "how does one 'misspeak' about whether or not they served in a war?" Did anyone? No. Why? He's a DEMOCRAT.

Your compare and contrast assignment for the day...a Republican Congressman cheats on his wife and resigns. A Democratic AG, running for the Senate, lies about military service and stays in office and race.

See, the Democrats can't be guilty of hypocrisy (the worst crime EVER) because they have no standards to betray.

*The NY Times story said he ran the Toys for Tots program while in the Marine Reserves in DC. I'm not snarking on that great program.

Original Post:
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee says they are sticking with Blumenthal but what else is there to say?

The guy did serve in the Marine Corps Reserve back in the day, so I don't want to take that away from him. Of course, the Democrats spent 8+ years telling us that George W. Bush's time as a fighter pilot didn't count. Maybe that's because unlike Blumenthal, Bush didn't try and get deferments first. Or because Bush is evil and Blumenthal is a Democrat. It makes all the difference.

Last night when the story broke Dave in Texas said he didn't think the Democrats could successfully spin this. That won't stop a guy like Marc Ambinder of the The Atlantic is willing to give it the old college try for their liberal friends. (I changed this because I didn't quite convey what Dave thought or succeed with what I was trying to do with a joke).

The facts are not unambiguous. The best the Times has is statements where Blumenthal talked about "returning" or "getting back" from Vietnam, but there are plenty of instances where he acknowledges that he never served overseas. That said, he never seemed to correct the impression that he did serve overseas.

Actually, the facts are quite unambiguous....

Notice how someone in the bag harps on "returning" or "getting back" from Vietnam and ignores "since the days that I served in Vietnam"?

Now there's nothing wrong per se with being in the bag for your team. We here at the HQ don't pretend to be anything but conservatives. It would be nice if others were equally honest.

Hey, He's So In the Habit About Lying About This He Even Lies In the Press Conference Apologizing For His Lies [ace]: In this video, Blumenthal insists that he has "always" given greater praise to those "who did far more than I did -- men and women who never came back. Those who returned, only to be ignored by the government who sent them there."

You see the problem there? He's saying those who never came back did more than he did. And those who returned but were ignored did more than he did.

But what about those who, unlike Blumenthal, just went to Vietnam in the first place?

I think this is a habit. I think he has over the years tried to imply he went to Vietnam with sentences like this, without actually saying he went. And obviously on a lot of occasions he flat-out said lied and said he went to Vietnam, or "returned" from Vietnam.

This reminds me of Clinton's defense in Lewinskygate -- that he tried to mislead without actually lying... but actually did wind up directly lying multiple times. But he wanted credit for "merely" attempting to mislead -- his error was "merely" slipping up and actually, really lying when what he intended to do was lie by implication and omission and evasion.

That's Blumenthal's schtick here -- Yeah, sure, I sorta tried to mislead, but I didn't try to lie... and yeah I actually did lie, but keep in mind, most of the time I was merely trying to sneak a lie past you without actually committing to it in a way that could be fact-checked.

And because he's practiced at these misleading statements -- because he's now internalized them -- in discussing his lies about going to Vietnam he's still talking about those who didn't return having given more than he did.

Those who didn't return did give more than he did. Also, all of those who did return gave more than he did, because Blumenfield never went, and was on some kid of barracks duty in the jungles of Washington State (or whatever).

He's still kinda-sorta implying he went to Vietnam because he's been doing just that for forty years.

In between directly and unambiguously lying about going to Vietnam, of course.

posted by DrewM. at 02:19 PM

| Access Comments