New Nutmeg Senator Caught Self Aggrandizing Again

Yid with Lid reports that freshman Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) has another problem with correlating his personal story with the truth.

During the 2010 senatorial primary campaign, when Blumenthal was speaking before a group of veterans, Blumenthal was caught upgrading his Vietnam “era” service thus implying that he served overseas when he had only served stateside.  Blumenthal had done this on more than one occasion, but  he only regrets uttering a few misplaced words about the matter.  Apparently, the voters of Connecticut overlooked this gilding of the lily and elected him to replace Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT).

Now Senator Blumenthal was at an Abortion Rights news conference where he wanted to show his bone fides to the cause of women being able to kill the unborn foetuses which they are carrying. So Blumenthal asserted:

I’m new to the Senate but I’m not new to this battle. Since the days of Roe v. Wade, when I clerked for Justice Blackman, as a state legislator, as attorney general, I have fought this battle.

There is a slight problem with this ingraciating but gratuitous remark.  Blumenthal clerked for Justice Blackman in 1974.  Roe v. Wade was handed down on January 22, 1973.  This was the time when Bloomenthal was in his Vietnam “Era” service.  Oops.

Ty Matsdorf, Blumenthal’s press spokesman, insists that the Supreme Court had many ancillary petitions to handle in the wake of the decision that followed up on the case.  Really.  A year after the highest court in the land that is an Appellate Court needs to handle follow up petitions once the majority of justices have passed their judgment.  Blumenthal’s P.R. flack continued:

It's not like there was just in 1973 this decision that was issued and it stopped...This was a fundamental case that shifted U.S. law... It continued to ripple through the judicial system and the nation. We're still feeling the effects of it today. For him to say 'during the days', he's talking about all the follow-up legal action.

That is a pretty convoluted way to justify your bosses words.

It would have been a non-story if the Senator’s overstatements were quietly clarified rather than doubling down on an exaggeration.  To compound matters, Senator Bloomenthal’s Chief of Staff Laurie Rubiner, Blumenthal's chief of staff warned against writing such an incendiary story by saying "This is a very unfair route you are going down," she said. "We'll remember this."

This shows a disturbing patterns of behavior by Senator Blumanthal’s office.  Firstly, the tendency to engage in needless aggrandizement to identify with an audience.  Then the harsh reactions when people question the association shows some pretty thin political skin.

Supposedly, ingesting nutmeg in sufficient quantities can be hallucinogenic.  It would seem like Gingerbread Frappuccinos will be missing the spicy toppings in Connecticut for a while.

H/T  Yid with Lid