" Facebook is a cruel mistress ... and YouTube doesn't lie."'
Christopher Dodd's Senate seat may well be in play for the Republicans this November.
As recently as a week ago, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, a well respected Democrat, held a virtually unassailable lead in the polls against all contenders for his party's nomination as well as a solid double digit advantage over the top Republican candidates Linda McMahon and Rob Simmons.
What a difference a day makes!
The New York Times cover story "Candidate's Words On Vietnam Service Differ From History" by Raymond Hernandez (complete with stunning high style, full color, headshot of Blumenthal ) is campaign coverage money just can't buy ... for Blumenthal's opponents. Linda McMahon's campaign unabashedly claims responsibility for leaking the video, and, the timing of Hernandez article three days before the Connecticut Democratic Primary is positively Rovian.
A video of Richard Blumenthal from March of 2008 is currently circulating on the interwebs. The Attorney General is shown addressing an unseen audience in a small Norwalk venue. The speech is garden variety, innocuous boilerplate until Mr. Blumenthal speaks the fateful words:
"We have learned something important since the days that I served in Vietnam."
Unfortunately, as it turns out that just isn't the truth. Mr. Blumenthal did serve in the United States Marine Corps Reserve but he never saw combat in Indochina. How does one undo this sort of blasphemy with less than a week before the primary ?
I have one question ... WWRD? What would the Republicans do?
They would circle the wagons, support the candidate and obfuscate. Talking points would be slavishly observed. The scandal would percolate, boil over and ultimately subside. When all was said and done the Republicans would prevail. They are very, very good at this. Democrats, to their credit and undoing, just have to plant their flag on the high ground. Damn the victory!
MSNBC pundit Chris Matthews in his 'Let Me Finish ' segment on Hardball excoriates not only the blasphemer Richard Blumenthal but "anyone who lifts a finger to put that man in office."
Mr. Matthews, with all due respect, stop for a moment ... take a breath.
As I recall, you delivered the same sort of summary judgment about candidate Hillary Clinton during the 2008 presidential campaign when she made a big juicy gaff about bullets flying overhead in Bosnia.
Granted, Matthew's high dudgeon over Stolen Valor plays as unequivocally virtuous.
Unfortunately, the only interested party who would benefit by Richard Blumenthal withdrawing from the race would be Linda McMahon ( former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment ) the self-funded Republican multimillionairess who intends to buy Senator Dodd's Senate seat outright with pockets deep as the Marianas Trench.