by Jules Witcover

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is learning the hard way that when you're in the spotlight, as the traditional oath in court puts it, you'd better tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

As the front-running Democratic candidate for the U.S Senate seat being vacated by veteran Christopher Dodd, Blumenthal has been tripped up by playing fast and loose with his military service record, the bane of many another ambitious politician.

As reported by the New York Times, Blumenthal during the Vietnam War garnered at least five draft deferments but later said he had actually served in Vietnam. According to official records, he finally enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve in 1970 and served six months at the training facility in Parris Island, S.C., and thereafter in community-service work in Washington, and never went to Vietnam.

Yet Blumenthal in March 2008 said publicly in Norwalk, Conn., citing the need to support Americans in combat: "We have learned something important since the days that I served in Vietnam."

Two months later, in Shelton, Conn., he said: "I served during the Vietnam era. I remember the taunts, the insults, sometimes even physical abuse," seeming to imply he had endured them in Vietnam. And five years earlier at rally in Bridgeport, he noted that "when we returned, we saw nothing like this," seeming to indicate his return own return from Vietnam.

Ironically, Blumenthal as recently as last March, in response to a question in a debate about use of force in Iran, replied: "Although I did not serve in Vietnam, I have seen firsthand the effects of military action, and no one wants it to be the first resort...." Nothing apparently was made of the acknowledgment at the time.

As soon as the Times story broke, however, the campaign blog of a Republican rival for Dodd's Senate seat, Linda McMahon, claimed it had leaked the Times a video of Blumenthal's claim of service in Vietnam. But the Times itself reported using the Freedom of Information Act to obtain his Selective Service records on his draft deferments.

At the time this country is engaged in two shooting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, this history could be a political hurdle for the popular state official who has served 19 years as state AG. In the most recent Rasmussen Reports poll on May 6, Blumenthal was well ahead of McMahon, 52 percent to 37, among likely Connecticut voters, and ahead of another Republican rival, U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, by 55-32.

Blumenthal has had two minor rivals for his party's nomination but was expected to have clear sailing at its state convention starting Friday in Hartford. In a Quinnipiac Poll in March, he was trouncing former Al Gore aide Merrick Alpert. The revelations of Blumenthal's false claim to have served in Vietnam has ignited a major buzz in the state, raising the possibility of a contested primary in August.

Such claims have surfaced in politics and other fields in the past, but they seldom have been as damaging as, by contrast, admissions of marital infidelity among officeholders. Award-winning historian Joseph Ellis, while teaching a course on Vietnam at Mount Holyoke in 2001, falsely told students he had served there, but suffered no appreciable consequences.

Other prominent politicians also obtained multiple draft deferments during the Vietnam War and survived public criticism. Most prominent was former President Bill Clinton in his 1992 campaign. Neither that history, nor his infidelity in the Oval Office that led to his impeachment, ultimately denied him public office or drove him from it. Another multiple draft-deferment recipient was former Vice President Dick Cheney, who later defended himself on grounds he had other career priorities.

Taking refuge from Vietnam service through enlistment in the National Guard and Reserves also was a widespread practice, for which former Vice President Dan Quayle and former President George W. Bush were criticized, without damage to their political careers.

Blumenthal was rated a strong favorite to keep Dodd's seat for the Democrats in November. Though insisting the inference of service in Vietnam was "absolutely unintentional," he must undertake personal damage control in a year in which his party may badly need his survival to keep control of the U.S. Senate.

 

Available at Amazon.com:

The Virtues of Mendacity: On Lying in Politics

Bush on the Home Front: Domestic Policy Triumphs and Setbacks

The Political Fix: Changing the Game of American Democracy, from the Grassroots to the White House

 

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