More lies but who cares

The New York Post is reporting today on yet another instance where Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal claimed to have served in Vietnam. This time it is a speech in Milford in 2007. Blumenthal, however, was officially chosen by the Democrats yesterday as their nominee for the senate seat being vacated by Chris Dodd (who is under a cloud due to his constant acceptance sweetheart deals). Either the Democrats at the state convention buy Blumenthal's excuse that he "misplaced" some words, or, more likely, they do not care if he lied about his military service. After all, it is about something that happened 40 years ago and it was only in Vietnam.

Two things are clear from these latest developments. First, Blumenthal did not mispeak when he claimed to have served in Vietnam. That could have been the case if it happened only once (although with Blumenthal that is unlikely). We are now up to five separate documented occasions where Blumenthal claimed to have served in the Marines in Vietnam. The clear truth is that Blumenthal was lying about his service. Second, the Democrats politicos in Connecticut see nothing wrong with a candidate who lies. Indeed, there was no substantial support for anyone other than Blumenthal at the convention. As a result, I expect that we will soon see a very negative campaign unfurl. Blumenthal will be pilloried as the liar that he unquestionably is. The Democrats will undoubtedly fire back at Linda McMahon will whatever ammo they can come up with. While I would prefer a campaign fought on the issues, I truly cannot conceive of that happening given the damaged nature of the Democratic candidate. Blumenthal will have to drag the campaign into the mud in order to try to bring the Republican down to his own level. Still, in that kind of campaign I have to believe that McMahon will have years of experience from her wrestling business to fall back on. She may well pull this election out and win.