Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal’s reacted defiantly to the New York Times’ true story that he lied about serving in Vietnam. He has now apologized by email to a local newspaper for his lies. Except that he still couches his repeated “misstatements” that he served in Vietnam as though they were unintentional:
If a lie can be played off as a case of “not being as clear or precise as I should have been,” then he’s taken responsibility. But how is he taking responsibility if he hasn’t acknowledged that he intentionally misrepresented his record in order to enhance his political credibility?
What he’s doing here — not unlike Rand Paul — is playing down the political damage from something really stupid that he said on purpose. Except in Blumenthal’s case, it’s not just a stupid statement. It’s a lie about a verifiable event that never happened.
It’s disappointing to see so many newspapers letting Blumenthal get away with it by characterizing this as an “apology” when it’s really a “defense.”
