Blumenthal's Disgrace and the GOP

[bonnie]

May 19, 2010

Blumenthal's Disgrace and the GOP

J.R. Dunn

Will the GOP have the guts to capitalize on Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal's disgraceful posing as a Vietnam vet? Signs are not encouraging.

In response to my piece on the GOP's need of a spine transplant, at least one reader pled for a second chance for John Cornyn of Texas, on the grounds that he was no worse than the rest of the party.

Well, why not? We all make mistakes, and as a noted Danish politician put it, "Use every man after his desert, and who should ‘scape whipping?"

Cornyn's chance to redeem himself arrived this very week, in the form of Connecticut Democratic senatorial candidate Richard Blumenthal, on the rack for forgetting that he didn't fight in Nam. The responses from across the political spectrum have been widespread and varied. What we heard from Cornyn, speaking as a senior member of the GOP, was this: "Sounds like quite a blow to his candidacy. Obviously he has enjoyed high approval ratings. ... I'm anxious to hear what his explanation is because I heard him on YouTube and of course broadcast on television claiming to have served in Vietnam and if that proves not to be true, then he's got quite an apology to make."

Comes across exactly as if Cornyn were encouraging Blumenthal to make a clean breast of it and move on, doesn't it? You'd think that a leading Republican official working for a long-shot but possible Senate takeover would make at least some effort to put the boot in. But not Cornyn. This is the tamest, most reserved comment made concerning Blumenthal this side of the Democratic National Committee. It serves only to underline our original premise: that the old-line GOP dinos are incapable of running an effective opposition party and are in need of serious pruning.

The only thing I can add is that it's a sad state of affairs when you can no longer depend on Texas.