Anytime a politician tries explaining his way out of a serious jam by blaming his troubles on “misplaced words,” you know he has a major problem.
That is because a politician’s job is to talk. It is all they do and we pay them a lot of money for this.
With so much experience talking nonstop all the time, they should be really good at it.
That is why when Connecticut Attorney General and Senate Democratic hopeful Richard Blumenthal tries claiming he only inadvertently said — repeatedly — that he served alongside America’s bravest and most selfless in the Vietnam War, he really cannot be taken seriously.
In addition to being a serial politician, Blumenthal is also a lawyer. Thus, he talks even more than your everyday politician. He is a chronic talker ill-equipped to do anything but talk all the time.
As a result, Blumenthal is a very nimble verbal gymnast who is well-trained in saying precisely what it is that he wants to convey without exactly lying. Or, at least without getting caught.
But in brushing up his reluctant service pushing papers in the Marine Reserves during an era when a real war raged overseas in Vietnam, slaughtering some of our finest young men, Blumenthal went far over that line.
“Since the days that I served in Vietnam,” and, “When we returned,” are not “misplaced words.”
They are more accurately known as “lies.”
It should not take the highest law-enforcement officer in Connecticut to figure that one out. Voters will know the difference.
Most troubling here is the utter disdain that such lies shower on so many who really did serve honorably in that horrible and thankless conflict.
Not to mention the sacrifices — unimaginable to Blumenthal or his family — made in those years by families who saw their sons and husbands and fathers go off to an unpopular war never to return.
In a press conference yesterday, Blumenthal bravely and selflessly took “full responsibility” for “a few misplaced words” that caused him to repeatedly lie about his own military service.
You see, a lifetime of talking incessantly — often about yourself — in return for applause and a good paycheck leads to another grave malady that strikes many politicians.
They become delusional and start actually thinking that they did brilliantly serve in Vietnam. And that their service manning a stapler — a dangerous object in untrained hands, you know — really does give them the right to claim valiant service alongside America’s soldiers.
Well, the time now has come for Blumenthal to finally serve his nation honorably. And for real. He should quit the race.