One of the state’s leading Democrats has advice for Richard Blumenthal as he prepares a rescue mission at 2 p.m. Tuesday: Apologize, fully, fast.
Blumenthal is scrambling to contain the damage from a New York Times expose Monday night charging that he has falsely claimed to have served in the military in Vietnam, rather than at home in the marine reserves.
The expose has created a crisis for Blumenthal’s campaign for Connecticut’s open U.S. seat. Blumenthal, a Democrat, is up at least 20 points in the race. But his leading Republican opponents, Rob Simmons and Linda McMahon (whose campaign leaked the story to the Times), sensed blood, immediately pouncing on the story.
In its initial press response to the Times article Monday night, Blumenthal’s campaign went on the attack. It called the Times story an “outrageous distortion.” Blumenthal has scheduled a 2 p.m. press event at a VFW hall in West Hartford Tuesday. The purpose, according to a press release: “to address recent news reports on his record of service in the United States Marine Corps Reserve. Veterans who have joined Dick at hundreds of previous events will discuss his record of standing up for Connecticut’s men and women in uniform.”
New Haven Mayor John DeStefano — the Democrats’ candidate for governor in 2006 and head of a city party with the largest bloc of delegates to the state party convention — said Tuesday that voters need to hear a different message, boiling down to one sincere word.
Sorry.
“Say you’re sorry. Mean it. And move on,” DeStefano advised.
He called Blumenthal’s reported comments about serving in Vietnam “a deeply troubling misrepresentation.”
“We all know Dick is better than that,” DeStefano said. “My advice would be to apologize genuinely and move on. Voters who know him well will move on as well.”
I had not realized his opponents had leaked, or sparked, the story. But given the repetitive nature of these misleading statements, I can't imagine any sort of denial will suffice. Even following this good advice, to just apologize, will not help very much with this evidence of deception. Can you imagine fox breaking a story on a republican contender?