Oops: Blumenthal strikes again … then his staff threatens a reporter for reporting

We have to stop excusing these kind of “misstatements” and then maybe we should consider using the term “The Chicago Way” and changing it to “The Connecticut Way”. Progress.

The bigger story here is the threat. After all it comes just one day after staff members from Connecticut’s new Democrat Governor admitted to making public, private license plate information on outgoing Republican Governor Jodi Rell. But I digress.

Senator “I served in Vietnam” Blumenthal holds his first press conference as a Senator (that didn’t take long) to vow he would fight against HR 3, which would prohibit federal funding of abortion.

1/3/2011–Introduced.No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act – Prohibits the expenditure of funds authorized or appropriated by federal law or funds in any trust fund to which funds are authorized or appropriated by federal law (federal funds) for any abortion.

But instead of letting the subject matter stand on its own and making his position as a “defender of women’s health” … he once again finds the need to embelish.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgRNDdFvrLw

“I’m new to the Senate but I’m not new to this battle,” Blumenthal said at a Capitol Hill news conference, his first since taking office. “Since the days of Roe v. Wade, when I clerked for Justice Blackmun, as a state legislator, as attorney general, I have fought this battle.”

The problem is, Blumenthal clerked for Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun in 1974, the year after Blackmun wrote the Roe v. Wade decision.

Blumenthal’s slip might not normally generate much attention or scrutiny. But it comes on the heels of an election that focused in part of revelations that Blumenthal made similar misstatements about his Vietnam-era military service.

That’s right … the same guy who “misstated” his Vietnam service. You remember. Except he never did serve in Vietnam. Ooops. Yup, the same guy who also couldn’t figure out how to create a job.

Now, I agree with Blumenthal’s staff, normally this would not be a big story. But this is a new type of Connecticut Democrat and well, the woman who reported the story from the online newspaper “ctMirror.org”, Deirdre Shesgreen, was then threatened by Blumenthal’s chief of staff.

Laurie Rubiner, Blumenthal’s chief of staff, echoed that argument and warned against writing such an “incendiary” story.

“This is a very unfair route you are going down,” she said. “We’ll remember this.” (emphasis mine)

Swell. So let me see if I get this right. In Connecticut, if you are a new Democrat, violating privacy laws is OK if it embarrasses the opposition. And if you are a new Connecticut Democrat, threatening a reporter is OK if you are the one who is embarrassed.

Just as an aside, Blumenthal goes on with some additional hyperbole, something about HR 3 being a threat to women’s health. Not a woman’s right to choose, but their health. This is a ridiculous statement on it’s face. But if this guy is so concerned about a woman’s health then I would expect him to speak out about Philly’s Doctor Kermit who is indicted for murder, including the death of one women who died after a botched abortion. What’s more the Phily DA today pinned this whole tragedy on the city and state officials failure to monitor “women’s health clinics”.

That isn’t the real cultural question, however.  The reason why the state of Pennsylvania didn’t bother to inspect Gosnell’s clinic is because of the political pressure on agencies to protect the operation of abortion clinics.  It’s politically incorrect to portray abortions as outpatient surgery, which is exactly what it is, and to apply the same standards on abortion clinics as any other outpatient surgery center.  Abortion supporters want to portray the procedure as so routine and inconsequential that it doesn’t require oversight — and that leaves women at the mercy of predators like Gosnell.  In Pennsylvania, abortion clinics aren’t required to register as outpatient surgical centers, and the state didn’t even bother to enforce the regulations that did apply to Gosnell’s clinic, even after women turned up in emergencies rooms and morgues after Gosnell’s treatments.

If Roe v Wade was supposed to keep women safe from the butchers, it certainly failed here. Not to mention here.

So where is Blumenthal? Crickets. Just like a few weeks ago when he couldn’t be bother showing up for his assigned Senate duties. This is the same guy who promised he would appear on my show during the campaign … and never did show, for which I have hammered him. So one can only imagine what’s in store for me.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ScvAJG51V4

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Jim Vicevich

Jim is a veteran broadcaster and conservative/libertarian blogger with more than 25 years experience in TV and radio. Jim's was the long-term host of The Jim Vicevich Show on WTIC 1080 in Hartford from 2004 through 2019. Prior to radio, Jim worked as a business and financial reporter for NBC30 - the NBC owned TV station in Hartford - and as business editor at WFSB-TV in Hartford for 14 years while earning six Emmy nominations and three Telly Awards.

9 Comments

  1. RoBrDona on February 9, 2011 at 12:11 pm

    Heaven forbid you get in the way of the compilation of the Skeletor Resume. He doesn't like the reaon for his existance and the only real component of his persona messed with.



  2. Gary J on February 9, 2011 at 2:45 pm

    Give me a bar of soap, Blumenthal and a sealed off room and he'll blow bubbles every time he speaks therefor  keeping his mouth shut and no more lies.



  3. winnie888 on February 10, 2011 at 3:17 am

    "Private decisions" do not require federal funding.  If my neighbor decides to have an abortion, I don't think my tax dollars should pay for it.

    I like the way blumey throws around the word reprehensible…I suspect there's a bit of projection going on there.

    Regarding the threat leveled at the reporter, Deirdre Shesgreen, I'm not in the least bit surprised by Rubiner's reprehensible behavior.  Actually, sadly, I'm not surprised by much anymore.



  4. Plainvillian on February 10, 2011 at 3:27 am

    Situational ethics on display in the person of our newly elected camera whore Senator For Life.  When people learn to distrust those who represent them, it follows that they will distrust the institutions and laws that make society workable and bearable.  Chaos will be the result.  Just one more step down the slippery slope.



  5. Lynn on February 10, 2011 at 3:38 am

    This is Grimm Fairy Tales for real



  6. Wayne SW on February 10, 2011 at 4:08 am

    Hey Dickey Pooh….leave "embelishing the facts" to the professionals. Haven't you heard or don't you yet realize……cameras and video recorders are everywhere……and this thing called "Internet" that your fellow lying buddy Al Gore invented, makes it easy to track the dishonor you bring to the halls of congress.

     

    Joe Wilson said it best…..YOU LIE!



  7. Don Lombardo on February 10, 2011 at 5:34 am

    The legacy of Bill Clinton.



  8. NMSDad on February 10, 2011 at 5:34 am

    This guy's starting to remind me of Forrest Gump, self-inserted into places in history.

    What's next, "I became a supporter of environmental issues from the time I walked on the moon and looked back at the beautiful sight of Mother Earth?"  ….to be followed a few days later with…"Oh, I simply misspoke…I meant to say 'When I watched the moonwalk on TV."

    But….more than enough people here in CT would probably say it was OK because he fought the Broadwater LNG transfer site in L.I.S.



  9. concernedat18 on February 10, 2011 at 11:53 am

    one word LIAR!!!!



Square-Blumenthal

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