Are Liberals Allergic to Truth? Dick Blumenthal's Viet Nam Service Record - There Aint One!

It would seem to me that in these days of the internet and its attendant almost instantaneous communications, politicians really ought know better than to FLAT OUT LIE about their service records. But nope, like Al Gore's hilarious claims of having invented the internet, Nutmeglandia's (that's Connecticut for the rest of the world) Democrat Attorney General Richie-Rich Blumenthal has come up with an entirely fact-checkable whopper. So egregious is the falsity of his claim, that the Democrat cheer leading rag of record, - yep, that's right, I said it - The New York Times today published a story on how the Gold-plated boy from Greenwich goes around claiming to VETERANS groups that he served a tour in Viet Nam.

His Big Fat Problema is that he didn't. He served out his USMC Reserves duty in Washington D.C. building playgrounds and organizing Toys-for-Tots drives. Those are certainly admirable and valuable services rendered to the community, but they definitively are not akin to a combat tour of duty half way around the world.

To his credit, Dick doesn't pretend to have graduated Law School, unlike Al Gore, he actually did.

Read this cautionary tale of political woe by clicking the linked title below.

Candidate’s Words on Vietnam Service Differ From History

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.

Many politicians have faced questions over their decisions during the Vietnam War, and Mr. Blumenthal, who is seeking the seat being vacated by Senator Christopher J. Dodd, is not alone in staying out of the war.

But what is striking about Mr. Blumenthal’s record is the contrast between the many steps he took that allowed him to avoid Vietnam, and the misleading way he often speaks about that period of his life now, especially when he is speaking at veterans’ ceremonies or other patriotic events.

Sometimes his remarks have been plainly untrue, as in his speech to the group in Norwalk. At other times, he has used more ambiguous language, but the impression left on audiences can be similar. [Read the rest here]

Also discussing this is Chris Fountain at FOR WHAT ITS WORTH

And Sammy at The Lid