Boo-hoo! Blumenthal’s dreams may be deferred

If we learned anything from last week’s elections, it’s that voters have become a lot smarter than we give them credit for. The May 18 primaries were just the first round of tests for many influential incumbents, and several big names flopped at the polls.

We shouldn’t be surprised. “Throw the bums out!” my friend Ed Koch says. Another bum who needs to hit the road is Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut’s five-term Democratic attorney general and a candidate for the Senate. Blumenthal stooped to the ultimate low when on numerous occasions he lied about his military service. Obviously he didn’t learn enough from the Swift Boat fiasco.

Given that we remain a country at war, it’s sickening to discover that Blumenthal would embellish on something so revered in our country: genuine and brave military service. While on the campaign trail, he repeatedly made comments about serving in Vietnam. “We have learned something important since the days that I served in Vietnam,” he said. “When we returned from Vietnam, I remember the taunts . . . we encountered,” he lied.

He continuously included himself in the “we” of active-duty Vietnam vets. To have fabricated that he was in Vietnam to a group of veterans not only dishonored the bravery and service of actual front-line veterans, but also discredited the little clout Blumenthal could have squeezed from his actual time as a reservist in the Marines.

This wasn’t an isolated slip of the tongue. Blumenthal deliberately misstated his record over the course of several years. Now, faced with the task of cleaning up his mess, he continues to insult Americans’ intelligence by chalking his false remarks up to “misplaced words.”

His claim that by “in” Vietnam he meant “during” Vietnam is just ridiculous. Yes, politicians have been known to misspeak, but Blumenthal’s statements are in another league altogether. He knew the implications of his choice of words, and now he refuses to concede his blunder.

Friends, for someone who brags about being so brilliant — Harvard undergrad and Yale Law School — Blumenthal is nothing but an arrogant fool and a stranger to the truth. Like our former governor, we see yet another sharp legal mind corrupted by the power of his position, either indifferent to or genuinely disconnected from the truth.

Blumenthal is a disgrace. The fact is that the only service he had in the armed services was five deferments and a stint with Toys 4 Tots. Mr. Blumenthal, you should be deferred from the Senate! On his radio show, I heard Sen. Fred Thompson call you a “lying weasel.” I couldn’t agree more.

I trust that our friends across the Sound will see through Blumenthal’s lies.
Voters throughout the country are also infuriated by the status quo. They are discontented and will not be ignored. Challengers have drawn on the public’s dissatisfaction and successfully used a grass-roots approach to bring voters to the polls and push them against incumbents.

My good friend Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania’s Republican senator for 29 years before he switched to the Democratic Party out of fear that he would face another Republican primary, lost to Rep. Joe Sestak in a Democratic primary. Voters were obviously left with a bitter taste in their mouths after their beloved Specter, now 80 and a two-time cancer survivor, became something of a Benedict Arnold and deserted them.

Another incumbent Democratic senator, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, has been forced into a runoff in early June. Lincoln played a large role in passing the health care reform bill and has been accused of voting against the will of her more conservative constituents to support the Obama agenda.

Another former colleague, Utah Republican Sen. Bob Bennett, became another incumbent casualty when he finished a distant third in the Utah GOP primary. Activist groups, primarily the Tea Party, attacked the three-term senator’s votes. After contemplating a run as a write-in candidate, Bennett decided that the people had spoken and his time in the Senate had come to an end.

What does this all mean? Regardless of party alliance, incumbents are facing the music. Politicians caught putting their personal agendas above the opinions of the people they represent deserve to be voted out. Let’s start with that lying weasel, Mr. Blumenthal.

Al D’Amato, a former U.S. senator from New York, is the founder of Park Strategies LLC, a public policy and business development firm. Comments about this column? ADAmato@liherald.com.