There he goes again

Connecticut Attorney General and Democrat Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal is again in the news for "misspeaking", the polite word for lying. As you may recall, Blumenthal got into hot water in the Spring when the New York Times revealed that his repeated claims to have served in Vietnam during the war were phony. Now, Blumenthal has been caught lying about whether or not he would take money from special interests. On the day he announced his candidacy for the senate, he was interviewed on friendly MSNBC and proudly stated that he had not and would never take money from PACs or special interests. Blumenthal said that he would raise his funds from ordinary citizens, a "very grass roots" campaign. That, it appears, was another lie. since that time, Blumenthal has accepted nearly half a million dollars in contributions from PACs. His opponent Linda McMahon has also unearthed $17,000 that he accepted from special interests years earlier when he was running for the legislature. Blumenthal's response has been to claim that he was only speaking about his campaigns for attorney general (so the legislative campaign does not count), and that in the senate campaign he was only limiting himself to those who did business with or had matters before the AG's office. while he clearly did not say that, even Blumenthal's new definition of special interest fails him. For example, he took $10,000 from the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers even though the AG's office and Blumenthal have been in court in 2010 seeking an injunction against certain jobs for those workers being moved out of the state.

I never expected that Linda McMahon could defeat Blumenthal. I have to say that I have changed my view. Blumenthal turns out to be just another politician who will say anything to get elected and who will not be constrained by the truth in that effort. Connecticut deserves better than Richard Blumenthal.