Let's keep this simple. Politics doesn't have many rules. You can get away with just about anything. Being a hypocrite usually does you in. As does, and I think Richard Blumenthal will get to this eventually, claiming to have a fought a war you didn't actually fight in.
It's oh so pre-Internet as is the oh so crappy advice Blumenthal is getting.
The only exit strategy for him is to apologize and exit stage right. He is toast.
Instead, he is as they say in DC, fighting back.
Embattled Connecticut Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, told a group of veterans in West Hartford today that on a "few occasions" he had "misspoken" about his service in Vietnam but that he refused to let anyone "take a few misplaced words and impugn my record of service."
Hah.
Comical.
Horrible. Tragic and comical. Having been on a couple of campaigns, here are a few guesses about what the geniuses behind the man are doing now, a man who said that he had "served in Vietnam" when he hadn't actually "served in Vietnam." Or that he had "returned from Vietnam" which would have been quite a trick having never been there.
First, they are telling him it will pass. It won't. No more paychecks for you boys. Sorry, this one is done.
Second, they are saying blame the other person, she leaked this to the press! Of course she did. If your opponent was walking around the state claiming to have "served in Vietnam" when he had never "served in Vietnam" you'd want people to know about it trust me.
Finally they are ignoring the video of Blumenthal saying some of these things.
It's not a few misspoken words. It's a pattern of what is known in the real world as "lying," as in, he lied about being in Vietnam. I know a lot of people who were in Vietnam, it's not something that escapes the mind.
Nor is it something that anyone who wants to be elected should ever lie about.
In 2003, he addressed a rally in Bridgeport, where about 100 military families gathered to express support for American troops overseas. "When we returned, we saw nothing like this," Mr. Blumenthal said. "Let us do better by this generation of men and women."
Did not go. Did not return. Game over.