Dickie's Apology Just Doesn't Work


I am trying hard to like Richard Blumenthal. I really am. Over the weekend I called for an end to Dickiegate, trying to resign myself to the fact that this would-be Senator is a liar. I stumbled under the influence of some inchoate syllogism that went something like this:

Dick Blumenthal is a politician.

All politicians are liars.

Dick Blumenthal is a liar.

I wanted to reduce this to a mere truism. Put the lie aside and then focus on the bigger issues. Who best to send to the Senate, a man with decades of experience in public office, or the queen of wrestling? I was leaning toward Blumenthal.

But then Blumenthal sent an email apology of sorts last night to supporters. It reads as follows:

"At times when I have sought to honor veterans, I have not been as clear or precise as I should have been about my service in the Marine Corps Reserves,'' Blumenthal says. "I have firmly and clearly expressed regret and taken responsibility for my words. I have made mistakes and I am sorry. I truly regret offending anyone. I will always champion the cause of Connecticut's and our nation's veterans."

Oh, Dickie. Repeat these words: "I lied and I am ashamed." Or are you incapable of saying so? You lied, Dick. You got caught, Dick. You stood defiantly and claimed we who accuse you were wrong, Dick. Now that you've dicked around with the truth for a a week and found folks are still asking questions, you try to apologize? You two-faced lizard and momma's boy: Don't try to mail in a voucher for your integrity. Call another press conference and confess.

Go back to your fox hole, Dick. The one at Neverland. Go play with Michael Jackson and do your moral moon walking on someone else's stage.

Blumenthal's "apology" is about as satisfying as phone sex. Behind the image of words that are meant to entice is an unappealing ugliness that repels. Is this man without qualities afraid that if he stood before a camera and admitted he lied that no one would want him? He's a moral blimp hiding behind a poster of Captain America.

He's not sorry about anything other than having been caught with his pants down. I, on the other hand, am regretting having called for an end to Dickiegate. The man knows no shame. He is apparently incapable of genuine remorse. He's every bit the caricature of the wrestlers Linda McMahon, his Republican rival, puts on stage for the Worldwide Wrestling Federation.

Dick is a dope, and so am I for being willing to think him fit to be a Senator. The man belongs in a moral leper's colony.

Comments: (3)

  • Pattis writes, "Put the lie aside and then focus o...
    Pattis writes, "Put the lie aside and then focus on the bigger issues." I agree. Though from headlines this morning from CT media to the Huffington Post and elsewhere I'm sure, its apparent that neither Blumenthal nor many others have yet moved to this point.
    But here are a few bigger issues I have been bringing up in posts here and elsewhere which Blumenthal should be called on to address. All of these issues have been reported in papers, and I can link them altogether: (1) the state's hasty and muted dropping of an investigation into the Stamford mayor Malloy soon after Malloy learned of my substantiated accusations of illegal activity in the state's attorney's system in conjunction with criminal complaints I filed against lawyers at a statewide corporate law firm; (2) the still mysterious resignation of the former chief state's attorney Christopher Morano following the dropping of the Malloy investigation; (3) the shifting of a Madoff civil case from the Bridgeport Superior court on Main Street to a Stamford courthouse after I notified parties in the case of my accusations of crime and corruption at the Bridgeport courthouse; (4) the resignation of Fairfield County State's Attorney Jonathan Benedict whose office was in the Bridgeport courthouse not long after the case was transferred to Stamford.
    I'm not making any of this up. All of these phenomena have been reported on in various media. As a citizen investigative journalist who has been targeted by state's attorneys, the corporate lawyers, and their accomplices for stalking (to leave it at that here), I can make connections and raise disturbing questions about things that have been going on in the public and private sectors of the Connecticut legal system while Blumenthal has been attorney general.
    I'm not out to get Blumenthal--or state's attorneys or corporate lawyers either for that matter--I'm out to do what I can to preserve and secure constitutional principles such as the right to privacy and due process, respect for the law, and limits on malicious abuse of law-enforcement powers and position. I'm trying to be fair. I'm not a Tea Partier, nor a front for any politician in the current campaigns. I've been intensifying my reporting and exposure on all this recently so that Democrats might offer a better candidate than Blumenthal for the sake of the citizens of Connecticut and the country since the office being sought is U.S. senator; a candidate whose moral compass and concept of leadership offers better prospects for facing up to and trying to deal with the country's problems at this time.
    Posted on May 24, 2010 at 7:58 am by Henry Berry
  • Blumenthals history as AG is not stellar. He didn'...
    Blumenthals history as AG is not stellar. He didn't file suit against the healthcare bill as other AGs did. He didn't go after Dodd for the Country wide mortgage. . He is rated by the Competitive Investment Instutitute as the worst AG in the US for overstepping his bounds. According the WSJ, : He went after a computer company for fraud and went to the extent of locking up the president. She sued the state and won $18 million for abusing its power and violating her constitutional rights. He is part of the reason the state ranks at the bottom of every business friendly rating.
    Posted on May 24, 2010 at 12:59 pm by John Schmidt
  • Norm, you are a lawyer... and lawyers never lie!
    ...
    Norm, you are a lawyer... and lawyers never lie!
    And you're right. What Connecticut needs is to send Linda McMahon and her steroid-enhanced husband to the United States Senate!
    Freak show embracing freak show?
    Posted on May 24, 2010 at 6:28 pm by Anonymous

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