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As a kid, an abiding fear, reinforced by movies and comic books, was that I would die on some foreign battlefield. I would become a casualty of the war that every generation of American men seemed destined to fight: World War I for our grandfathers and World War II for our fathers and Korea for our older brothers. Then came Vietnam, which is where many of my generation drew the line: "Hell no, we won't go," in the chant of the day. And I didn't. It turned out I didn't have to. Just luck. I enlisted in the 42nd Infantry...

As a kid, an abiding fear, reinforced by movies and comic books, was that I would die on some foreign battlefield. I would become a casualty of the war that every generation of American men seemed destined to fight: World War I for our grandfathers and World War II for our fathers and Korea for our older brothers. Then came Vietnam, which is where many of my generation drew the line: "Hell no, we won't go," in the chant of the day. And I didn't. It turned out I didn't have to. Just luck. I enlisted in the storied 42nd...

HARTFORD, Conn. – Criticized for saying he "regrets" misstatements he made about his military service during the Vietnam War, Connecticut Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal is now apologizing. On Monday and late the night before, the Democrat told various media outlets that he made mistakes and is sorry for them. "I think he wants to put this behind him. He wants to start getting back to talking about the issues that matter most to the people of Connecticut and start talking about who is going to best represent the people of Connecticut in Washington," said Maura Downes, a campaign spokeswoman. The...

First time Connecticut Attorney General (whom I also call the “eternal general”) Richard Blumenthal and his saying that one simple word “sorry” for his misleading statement about being in Vietnam when he was not over in Vietnam. With him still doing a song and dance act even when the people in the news media pressing him with the questions, he still dealt with this issue like it was no big deal. WELL IT WILL BE A BIG DEAL COME IN NOVEMBER.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- U.S. Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal has apologized in an e-mail for misstatements about his military service during the Vietnam War, nearly a week after the controversy erupted. Mr. Blumenthal said in a statement e-mailed to the Hartford Courant late Sunday that he made mistakes and is sorry.

Caught lying about his Vietnam era service (he claimed to have served "in Vietnam" when he did not), Connecticut Attorney General and Democratic Senate Candidate Richard Blumenthal has now misspoken his way through an alleged apology. Since the story first broke, Mr. Blumenthal has claimed he misspoke, that there were "misplaced words" and that he regretted what happened but was still being pressured from veterans groups, the media and political foes to apologize for his deception. His latest statement still doesn't ring true.

Now, one week latter, Connecticut’s Attorney General says he is sorry, why Mr. Blumenthal did you have to wait a WEEK to do that? From Courant website: “E-mail statement from attorney general and Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal: “At times when I have sought to honor veterans, I have not been as clear or precise as I should have been about my service in the Marine Corps Reserves,” Blumenthal says via email tonight.”

Standing on the stage with Blumenthal last week at a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in West Hartford was another vet who has been caught up in accusations that he claims medals he did not earn . . . “If I claimed to have a Bronze Star, you can lock me up right now, because it’s called ‘stolen valor,’” referring to a federal law passed in 2006 . . . A group called the POW Network has posted a photo of Trumpower wearing the ribbon, but Trumpower said he wore it once, in honor of his late Uncle Jimmy at...

And it would seem that he did that on purpose for political advantage. The political backbreaker for Richard Blumenthal in this is two-fold: He cannot just chalk this off as being mere "misstatements" concerning him serving in Vietnam as he apparently let the media print his "misstatements" many, many times and he apparently never tried to correct them. Secondly, Blumenthal didn't mistate, he mislead - the word which must be used over and over again concerning his actions. Mislead. Mislead. Buts Dems are already using the old playbook of 'policy trumps behavior.' They are already saying that Blumenthal has done...

ABC News analyst Cokie Roberts said Sunday that Connecticut Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal (D) should end his campaign over his misstatements about his Vietnam War record. The New York Times this week reported that Blumenthal stated several times that he said he served "in" Vietnam during the war and that he told anecdotes as if he saw action there. Blumenthal served in the Marine Reserve in Washington, D.C. after receiving several deferments. Roberts thinks that Republicans could pick up the seat of retiring Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) due to Blumenthal's errors: TAPPER: Donna, you're a Democratic strategist. If he came...

Democratic delegates ignore controversy, nominate BlumenthalPublished: Sunday, May 23, 2010 By Susan Misur, Register Staff HARTFORD — This week’s allegations of deceit didn’t dampen enthusiasm for state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal’s candidacy at the Democratic State Convention Friday night where he became the party’s nominee for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Christopher J. Dodd. On the heels of accusations that he lied about his military service, Blumenthal appeared the likely winner as soon as the roll call vote began among the state’s 1,829 delegates. “I will never be intimidated. I will never back down. I will never stop...

T. S. Eliot wrote about when memory mixes with desire. Politicians get in trouble when desire nixes memory. They know they are misrepresenting an experience, but can’t help themselves. Their desire to be the person they describe is too overpowering. Politicians are actors trapped in the same part, and some occasionally feel the need to punch up the script. They are salesmen engaged in the hard sell, and some occasionally get carried away.... Consider Richard Blumenthal.... Blumenthal added a filigree here and there, not because he needed them to win, but perhaps because those more heroic actions fed his innermost...

Then came revelations on the front page of the New York Times that Mr. Blumenthal had deliberately misled people about key parts of this history. Contrary to what he claimed in various speeches to veterans' groups, Mr. Blumenthal never served in Vietnam. He received at least five deferments, ultimately serving in the Marine Reserves in Washington. ...He filed a supportive brief in a suit against Smith & Wesson that would have held gun manufacturers responsible for crimes committed by third parties using the manufacturer's products. ...An eminent domain case involving a working quarry taken in 2004 to expand a highway...

I have a thing for Marines, always have. It began a long time ago when I watched my older brother amble away in the night toward his barracks at Camp Pendleton near San Diego.

US Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal has been caught yet again insinuating he served in Vietnam when he never set foot there. The latest embarrassment to the once-soaring Connecticut Democratic hopeful comes from the archives of the Milford Mirror, a weekly paper. While addressing a crowd at a 2007 Memorial Day parade -- which included the family of a Marine killed in Iraq -- Blumenthal said, "In Vietnam, we had to endure taunts and insults, and no one said, welcome home." The Democrat added, "I say, welcome home." In fact, Blumenthal had never served in Vietnam.

The White House has publicly stated Connecticut chameleon Richard Blumenthal's Vietnam veteran pretense is no big deal.  For Democrats, the motto is, "Whatever it takes to get elected."  And if the victory vehicle includes stretching the truth, don't the ends justify the means? Blumenthal... found himself on the defensive when the NY Times reported ... he had repeatedly claimed that he had served in Vietnam. Blumenthal was in the Marine Reserves during the Vietnam War, but did not serve in Vietnam. Blumenthal says he misspoke about his record unintentionally and that it happened only a few times out of hundreds...

Connecticut's Democratic Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is taking heavy fire for a series of statements he made over several years in which he either explicitly or implicitly claimed to be a Vietnam veteran, when in fact he is not. His defense is that he misspoke - using the word "in" instead of "during" the war, according to a spokesman. This implies that he repeatedly made an innocent and unconscious mistake. But anyone watching the video of him in 2008, touching his heart when he earnestly says "we have learned something very important since the days that I served in Vietnam,"...

Did we just hear Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal try to blame local journalist for his ‘misspoken’ words about his Vietnam war record? When Blumenthal was asked at Tuesday’s press conference why he didn’t correct published accounts of his Vietnam service, he said:There were a few articles, not many. I am responsible for my own statements….I can’t be responsible for all the articles, I may not even have seen them. ….sometimes journalists do make mistakes.Really? Sure, journalists get quotes and background wrong from time to time but civil servants, who are in the public eye like Blumenthal,

WATCH OUT because it is the kiss of political death. This is the case for Richard Blumenthal. Stick a fork in, the Eternal General is now TOAST. But then again,with President Obama being so very unpopular as it is, this support is a vivid remember to REMEMBER in November Connecticut.

Here is the “smoking gun” that got Connecticut state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and those 5:45 minutes that embarrassed Mr. Blumenthal this week.