Connecticut Dem Frontrunner Likes To Tell Horrible Lies About Vietnam Service

Everyone was so relieved when Chris Dodd announced he wouldn't seek re-election, because then this attorney general guy Richard "Dick" Blumenthal could run and actually win, easily. He would be the next Barack Obama! And maybe he still will, butthis  New York Times article is kind of terribly and completely devastating. Seems Dick spent the last decade telling voters -- especially veterans groups -- about his service in Vietnam. Hedidn'ttell them, though, that by "service in Vietnam" he meant "working his ass off and using his rich father's connections to get five deferments and then, when he had no choice, using his father's connections to get him in a cozy D.C. rich-child's reserve unit, which did nothing."

This rest of this story only has about 10 million trillion more examples of Dick Blumenthal telling people he served as a Marine in Vietnam, though, so who knows if it's true.

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.

MAYBE REPUBLICANS WILL MISS THIS STORY.

Jesus. Can the campaign ship this guy over to Vietnamnowand get a couple black-and-white photos of him shooting a tree or kidnapping John McCain or whatever? If not... can he just kidnap John McCain anyway, right now?