I wrote earlier about Dick Blumenthal lying about being captain of the Harvard swim team. This one seems more substantial, but in line with the first.
According to the New York Times, he never served in Viet Nam. Why is this disgusting? Because unlike the claim that he donned a tight Speedo and swam a few laps, laying claim to the bravery and self-sacrifice of soldiers who fought in battle should be beyond the pale. Read “We Were Soldiers Once, and Young” and tell me that a man who claims, falsely, to have been among those men deserves any public office, let alone Senator.
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.
The deferments allowed Mr. Blumenthal to complete his studies at Harvard; pursue a graduate fellowship in England; serve as a special assistant to The Washington Post’s publisher, Katharine Graham; and ultimately take a job in the Nixon White House.
In 1970, with his last deferment in jeopardy, he landed a coveted spot in the Marine Reserve, which virtually guaranteed that he would not be sent to Vietnam. He joined a unit in Washington that conducted drills and other exercises and focused on local projects, like fixing a campground and organizing a Toys for Tots drive.
Would someone please put a spike through this monster’s heart? I’m just a little blogger, with a lawyer’s view of the fraud that the man is, but surely someone out there with real press credentials can alert the public to this man. He should be stopped.
UPDATE: Ooh ooh ooh! Look what’s been included in the story overnight: I hope because of a message I sent the reporter yesterday, but credit or not, I’m happy:
On a less serious matter, another flattering but untrue description of Mr. Blumenthal’s history has appeared in profiles about him. In two largely favorable profiles, the Slate article and a magazine article in The Hartford Courant in 2004 with which he cooperated, Mr. Blumenthal is described prominently as having served as captain of the swim team at Harvard. Records at the college show that he was never on the team.