"When I served in Vietnam...."
A Democratic candidate's self-inflicted war wound
"When I served in Vietnam...."
Dick Polman, Inquirer National Political Columnist
I had planned to preview some of the marquee elections on tap for today; aside from the Specter-Sestak Senate smackdown, we have the special House election to fill deceased powerhouse John Murtha's seat in western Pennsylvania, as well as the Kentucky Senate Republican primary (starring tea party favorite Rand Paul) and the Arkansas Senate Democratic primary (where incumbent Blanche Lincoln is being challenged from the left). But I decided otherwise, for two reasons:
1. The key questions about those races likely will be answered within 12 hours anyway, once the actual votes are tallied.
2. The political story that just broke in Connecticut has to take precedence. It's impossible to ignore such a self-inflicted wound.
If the Democrats hope to retain control of the U.S. Senate, they obviously need to keep the seats they currently hold in blue states such as Connecticut. And they have generally assumed that Connecticut is safe; the baggage-laden Chris Dodd was yielding the Democratic nomination to state attorney general (and former U.S. attorney) Dick Blumenthal, a well-regarded guy who literally has been awaiting His Turn for decades. Blumenthal would keep the seat in the Democratic column. Finally, his moment had arrived...
But what do we have here today: A New York Times investigative report that threatens to torch his candidacy.
It turns out that Blumenthal has repeatedly stated in public that he served in Vietnam - whereas, in reality, he never did. Quite the contrary, he received at least five military deferments and took various steps to avoid being sent.
He told a veterans group two years ago that "we have learned something important since the days when I served in Vietnam." He has reminisced at public events about how he and other Vietnam veterans returned home, only to be spat upon. Indeed, over the years, Connecticut newspapers have repeatedly described him as a Vietnam vet - yet there's no evidence he ever tried to correct the error. And it was a doozy of an error, considering his five deferments - and the fact that his 1970 stint in a stateside Marine Reserve unit was quite benign; as The Times wryly noted, his unit did stuff like "fixing a campground and organizing a Toys for Tots drive."
Hello, character issue.
This morning, Blumenthal's PR people are predictably denouncing The Times story as "an outrageous distortion" - which is absolutely priceless spin, given the fact that The Times gained access to Blumenthal's Selective Service records via a Freedom of Information request; and that Connecticut newspapers have frequently reported on his Vietnam reminiscences (The Shelton Weekly, 2008: Blumenthal "was met with applause when he spoke about his experiences as a Marine sergeant in Vietnam"). Nevertheless, the Blumenthal team essentially seems to be saying: Yeah, but what about all the times when he didn't say he served in Vietnam?
Vietnam has long been a touchy topic for baby-boomer candidates; it's the old "what did you do in the '60s" question. Bill Clinton's '92 presidential bid was nearly torpedoed by his maddeningly elusive remarks about the various measures he took to avoid the draft - but at least he never claimed to have served in Vietnam when the truth was the opposite. Connecticut voters may well view Blumenthal's behavior as evidence of a serious veracity deficit. He'll need to engage in major damage control if he hopes to soldier on; he'll undoubtedly stand at a podium today surrounded by as many supportive military vets as his spinmeisters can muster. That's the usual drill...And sure enough, there we go: a midafternoon press conference, with Blumenthal surrounded by vets, and the candidate doing what Dick Nixon used to call the modified limited hangout route - a defiant sorta confession, in which Blumenthal admits to having spoken "a few misplaced words."
This story is a potential gift for the normally bereft Connecticut Republicans. One GOP contender for the Senate seat is ex-congressman Rob Simmons - an actual Vietnam veteran. The other, wrestling mogul Linda McMahon, has already posted a video of Blumenthal talking publicly about his so-called service in Vietnam. Yes, there is video. And as we've already seen this spring in Pennsylvania, a candidate is most imperiled when he imperils himself with his own words.
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Speaking of Pennsylvania...In the Senate Democratic primary, the consensus is that Arlen Specter imperiled himself when he was caught on video saying, "My change in party will enable me to be re-elected." Challenger Joe Sestak is still featuring that soundbite in a TV ad, and most observers agree that the ad itself is potentially devastating.
On CNN yesterday, however, host Rich Sanchez insisted that the ad was unfair to Specter because Sestak's media team had cut the rest of the Specter quote. The entire quote, aired by Sanchez, goes like this: "My change in party will enable me to be re-elected - and I have heard that again and again and again on the street. 'Senator, we're glad you'll be able to stay in the Senate, to help the state and the nation.'"
Sanchez concluded: "It's effective, the ad. But it's not true."
I disagree. The ad is essentially true. As I have mentioned previously, Specter in the other venues had made it quite clear that he was leaving the GOP because his electoral prospects were blocked, and that he was joining the Democrats because they offered a path to re-election. As for the full quote cited above, that's just the standard political rap. Candidates always claim to have found people "on the street" who miraculously say exactly what the candidates want to say about themselves.
Meanwhile, I'm due to talk about the race results tonight on Philadelphia National Public Radio, from 9 to 10.
The New York Times exposed a story dealing a mortal blow to a Democratic candidate? I have to lay down for a bit.— jmc
It amazes me that people running for public office in this day and age think that they can fib on something as big as military service (or a great many other things for that matter) and get away with it. With the ever expanding level of data access and the fact that anyone with a cell phone can record your every word at every campaign stop, you would think it would click at some point with some of these guys (and gals) that they are gonna get called out. Oh well, political darwinism i guess...— DAEnnis- I think Mr. Polman's conservative grad student is writing his blog again:)— NEPhilly
- jmc--this just shows how inept Fox News is as an actual news organization.— liberal
- PhilC--Of course I know there was public housing in Phila before 1980--I was here then too. My point was that most of the projects that existed then were torn down, at great expense, and then rebuilt, also at great expense AFTER 1980. Now if Reagan republicans thought public housing was such a bad idea, why did they spend all this federal money on it?— liberal
- Phil, (1) what is the Southern strategy? I didn't just invent the term. (2)You're spinning out of it. I'm not denying that Philly has a coprrupt culture or that there is manipulation of the weaker voters but the city was not the cesspool that you remembr all the way back to the 60's due to the Dems. The Republicans were thrown out due to corruption and judging by the way Meehan is running the party, there's no change. As I said, maybe we don't remember it all the same, I lived in NW philly - it looked different than you describe. And I'm sure we must have met during that time - you apperently know me well.— JimR
Sanchez concluded: "It's effective, the ad. But it's not true." No Senor, It's effective BECAUSE it's true.- Liberal, how does this show how inept Fox News is as a news organization? The only news organizations this shows are inept are those who have been reporting since 2000 that Blumenthal is an actual Vietnam vet without fact checking it first. Also noted in the NYTimes story is how a profile of Blumenthal that appeared in two news organizations (Slate and a CT paper, on which Blumenthal cooperated) noted Blumenthal was the captain of the Harvard swim team when school records show he was never even on the team. Blumenthal says he never tried to correct the record because, with all the news items written about him, he could not keep track of what was said in those stories. Seems he has a problem with the truth about his past, trying to embellish upon it for political gain. Shocking. Is he still electable, in your liberal opinion?— tom - wilmington, de
- Why is it that when Conservatives say there is a revolution taking place, it is seen as exhorting violence. Yet, Chris Matthews on Smerconish this morning use the term twice, saying if Murtha's old seat goes to the Republican, it could be the sign of a revolution. Is he exhorting violence?— tom - wilmington, de
- tom : it completely depends on context (and I didn't hear Mathews). If someone uses it in a context comparing it to, say, 1994, then no, there's no overt or implicit exhortation of violence. If someone is in the midast of an anti-federal government rant, talkking about taking the goverment back, and says something along the lines of "Maybe we need another revolution" and throws in the token "... with the blood of patriots" line, then yes, that could be interpreted as an implicit call to violence.... As to Blumenthal, who knows? Personally, I could never vote for the guy. But I know little about his popularity in Connecticut (other than he was very popular), nor do I know anything about his opponents' electability.— still_independent
- Blumenthal is yet another example of how people in the limelight start to believe their own myth. Ronald Reagan once told Israeli premier Shamir that he, Reagan, had been present at the liberation of Buchenwald and participated in a film about it. In fact, Reagan, like Blumenthal, was stateside for the duration. And Tom, I wouldn't vote for such a guy unless the only alternative was a conservative Republican. Then I'd hold my nose.— liberal
I'm just waiting for Aaron to tell us how we're all idiots and that the Blumenthal situation is actually very COMPLEX and that there are many aspects to it and we simply can't know all the details. And if we'd all just grow up and recognize these hard facts, stop talking about things we don't really understand, and leave these issues to the super smart and highly educated the world would be a much better place.- I'm just waiting for Aaron to tell us how we're all idiots and that the Blumenthal situation is actually very COMPLEX and that there are many aspects to it and we simply can't know all the details. And if we'd all just grow up and recognize these hard facts, stop talking about things we don't really understand, and leave these issues to the super smart and highly educated the world would be a much better place.
- Yeah, JMC, the NYT did that. Because unlike Fox, they don't have an agenda. Name once that Fox did that to a Republican and maybe someday somebody will take Fox, or you who watch it, seriously.— CutterMcCool
- Lord--you're wrong. The Blumenthal situation is really very simple. It's about lying. Not the type of political point you disagree with that you call a lie. But real lying. Like most of what the right wing has been saying about universal health care.— liberal
Cited by the Columbia Journalism Review as one of the nation's top political reporters, and lauded by the ABC News political website as "one of the finest political journalists of his generation," Dick Polman is a national political columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is on the full-time faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, as "writer in residence." Dick has been a frequent guest on C-Span, MSNBC, CNN, NPR and the BBC. He covered the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 presidential campaigns.
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