Oh...Really...

I don't mean to rant here...to go on about AG Blumenthal's Viet Nam record...but...I just can't help myself.

He "misspoke"...

PUHLEEEZ!

Here's a Harvard educated lawyer and the articulate Attorney General of one of the sovereign states of the Union.

You are going to stand there with a straight face and try to persuade me that you misspoke?

Not buyin' it...not for a Hartford Minute.

You worked the system in the 60s and got out of going to Viet Nam. Why? Because you didn't want to DIE!!!

Got it. You did what a lot of guys did back then. You did what you could to prevent yourself from going to war. Some guys went to Canada and some guys went to prison. Some guys faked being gay or crippled (the word back then...)or being concientous objectors.

Some guys got married and had a quick child. Some guys went underground and some guys joined the National Guard (and ended up being President...)

Some guys used their fathers to influence the decision and some guys paid other guys off or paid them to lie and go in their places.

And some guys just went. Some guys even enlisted because they believed in something larger than themselves.

Fine...whatever. You gamed the system and ended up in the USMC Reserve. Thanks for distributing toys and teaching inner city kids. I feel much better now. And then you worked for Tricky Dick (hmmmmmmm....) Thanks again.

But to now refute the notion that you played fast and loose with the truth when it served your ambitious purpose is ludicrous.

Why didn't you just say it the right way in the first place? Why didn't you correct the misimpression that you were a hero?

Why? I'll tell ya...

Because you liked being thought of as a big man. A warrior. A patriot. A hero.

You knew that would sell better than the idea that you may have been a draft dodger.

But as Lloyd Bentsen said...I know heroes and, Mr. Blumenthal, you're no hero.

The Heroes are the ones whose names are etched on Maya Lin's awesome memorial.

The Heroes are the ones who left an arm or a leg or a life in the paddies of Viet Nam.

The Heroes are the ones who fought and died so you can run for the Senate (and I can write this blog)

The Heroes are the ones who don't talk about their service. They just live with the awful memories of what they went through giving it.

The Heroes are not opportunists attaching themselves to nobility after the fact and basking in the reflected glow of others.

Sir, you may be a lot of things...but a hero isn't one of them.

You should be ashamed. One of the real tragedies of this "teaching moment" is that you're not.

Here comes Memorial Day.

Ten HUT!