When Richard Blumenthal jumped into the vacuum left by Chris Dodd’s sudden urge to retire from the Senate, most analysts wrote off the Connecticut race as a preordained hold for Democrats. After all, the Attorney General was a tremendously popular politician, long considered ripe for the national stage, and Blumenthal faced only a former Congressman and two political neophytes as potential candidates. A funny thing has happened on the way to the electoral forum, however — Blumenthal has been exposed not once but several times as dishonest. In the latest scandal, his claims to have rejected PAC money has been shown false by the Linda McMahon campaign:
Richard Blumenthal’s words are haunting him again. Already forced to apologize for saying he had served “in” Vietnam in the Marine Reserve rather than stateside, the state attorney general’s campaign for U.S. Senate is now being challenged to explain his assertion that he had “never taken PAC money” and has “rejected all special interest money.”
Federal records show that he has accepted $480,000 in political action committee money since he made that claim in January. Moreover, his Republican opponent, former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Linda McMahon, points to nearly $17,000 Blumenthal received as a state legislative candidate in the 1980s — a figure Blumenthal’s campaign does not dispute.
If the money amounted to just a few thousand dollars, perhaps Blumenthal could be forgiven; after all, not every donation over the transom gets the candidate’s attention in a campaign. No one raises $480,000 in seven months without knowing where it originated, however, not unless the candidate is a complete empty suit acting as a puppet for his handlers. In fact, no one raises that kind of money from any sector without actively campaigning for it.
Why did Blumenthal make that claim? He wanted to show that he could beat McMahon and her self-funded campaign without selling out:
Blumenthal was then asked how tough the race would be — and how expensive.
“I’ve never taken PAC money, and I have rejected all special interest money because I have stood strong and taken legal action against many of those special interests,” he responded.
When pressed again on how much the race might cost, Blumenthal said it was too early to tell but said he was going to run a “very grass-roots campaign” and seek fundraising “from ordinary citizens.”
Blumenthal’s campaign said that he didn’t lie about this, and that he was talking about his previous runs for AG. The context of the interview, however, was on the Senate race, for which Blumenthal had announced his candidacy the day before. And the point that Blumenthal was making was to differentiate himself as a candidate for this race, not for the races he had already won.
Would MSNBC have had Blumenthal on a live interview to give a historical perspective on long-past races for state office in Connecticut? Hardly. Blumenthal was campaigning for this office, not reliving his glory days, and everyone knows it.
This race was Blumenthal’s to lose. So far, he’s doing a great job of it.
In the last week, I have been asked three times to give away significant amounts of my time and expertise to people who are putting on programs or putting together materials for a good cause. In two out of the three cases, the people asking were actually fairly rude and demanding about what they wanted from me. And by the third request-- which came this morning -- I snapped.
Why is it that so many people think authors can give away so much of their time for free? Where do they suppose we get the books that they ask us to donate? How do they expect us to fund the time that it takes to prepare for their event, to get to their event, to perform at their event? It's the craziest thing! I would never ask my dentist to work for free, or my lawyer, or my hairdresser, and yet people seem to think that it's part of an author's job to do programs and events for free. Maybe they mistake all authors for best-selling authors. Maybe they think that because Dan Brown and J.K. Rowling make so much money, all authors are raking in the dough.
I like it that people want me to show up. I think it's wonderful that they think I have something to offer. I appreciate that they are trying to support worthy causes.
But for the foreseeable future? I'm saying no. I am, after all, trying to write a novel....
eric seiger
openSUSE <b>News</b> » openSUSE Weekly <b>News</b>, Issue 140 is out!
“Here is the news that a lot of you have been waiting for! The new wikis (en.opensuse.org, languages.opensuse.org, and dewiki.opensuse.org) have been switched to the new Lucene search engine. The legacy wikis are still running the old ...
<b>News</b> - PIC: Miley Cyrus, Liam Hemsworth Are Back On! - Healthy <b>...</b>
The couple is spotted grabbing Starbucks together Saturday.
Bad press for Saudi growth denounced - Arab <b>News</b>
By MUHAMMAD HUMAIDAN | ARAB NEWS. Published: Sep 11, 2010 23:52 Updated: Sep 11, 2010 23:52. JEDDAH: Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal has strongly criticized what he called the “negative coverage” by the world media of the progress ...
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