Vietnamgate

Republicans, of course, are also in the habit of foot-shooting, and so they
went — not with former Rep. Rob Simmons (R-Conn.), who actually did serve
in Vietnam — but with Linda McMahon, former chief executive
office of World Wrestling Entertainment, who is quite a
piece of work herself, and who took credit for providing the initial research
that was the foundation of the Times‘s Blumenthal exposé.
 
The most amazing aspect of the bombshell was its timing, just days before the
nomination was set to take place and apparently enough time for Blumenthal to
survive it. Now polls show him well ahead of McMahon. A survey out today,
taken last week (May 19-20), put him 15 points ahead. He decided to
publicly apologize, via The Hartford Courant, yesterday. 
 
We all remember how Hillary Clinton made up a scene during her run for
president involving sniper fire greeting her arrival in Bosnia, only when
we checked the video it was a smiling child with flowers, no snipers
to be found. It was a stupid fabrication, but it was her own lie that
affected no one. Blumenthal’s desire for a politically perfect résumé and
for power, whether driven by guilt or regret, makes you wonder what kind of
person could talk that way in front of combat veterans and all these years
could sleep at night living a lie that big?
 
For those interested in this story, don’t miss Kathleen Parker’s terrific Washington
Post column from
last weekend, in which she described her brother’s service and the fact that
“real heroes never brag and real Marines never lie.”
 
I want to go on the record as stunned that the Democratic Party still nominated
him, and shocked that he is ahead in the polls by a comfortable margin and
could win simply because McMahon is a weak candidate.
 
Is Blumenthal going to win? 
 

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