I know the story is just breaking. I know that the man has his defenders, as my one quick perusal of the only diary I saw on the subject here revealed. But this is really important, and I really feel like we need to get out in front of this. We all know what happened in 2006, and we know one of the main reasons was due to the scandals that seemed to cascade and go unanswered by Republicans.
We all cackled gleefully when that happened. Every day Mark Foley was in the news was a day we improved our position in the upcoming elections.
Well, guess what folks. This isn't that far off. Yes, it's "one of ours". Yes, it's someone that we all cheered as he took up the mantle of the retiring Dodd and turned a likely Democratic loss into a safe hold.
But that's no longer the case. His history reveals a deeply narcissistic man who repeatedly told one group of people he served in Vietnam and another group that he didn't serve in Vietnam, based on what would come across best to whichever group he was speaking to. It's an almost Palinesque complete disregard for the truth.
I've never lived in Connecticut. I don't know the man. But I know what the story says, and his "rapid response" disputed none of the facts in it. This is going to blow up tomorrow, and it's going to have a very large amount of traction. We're very lucky that it's the biggest primary day of the year, so that Wednesday's stories will be based on that instead of a week's worth of coverage about nothing but Blumenthal. We're very lucky that Linda McMahon is a complete idiot and broke the story as soon as she discovered it instead of waiting for his name to be locked into the ballot and potentially stealing a deep blue seat because she broke a scandal at the optimal time. She's given us an opportunity, and that's one we absolutely have to take advantage of.
We have to dump this guy. Like, now. Not after he spends a couple weeks stumbling around with a Clintonesque legalistic defense that nobody believes. We have to get in front of this now. We can demand his immediate withdrawal, and if he's gone quickly, the story dies there. There's no Massa scandal for November like there was with Foley. Partially because it happened early, but mostly because he didn't have any defenders and was forced out. You can't attack a party for defending someone they didn't defend. Let's not make that mistake here. Don't defend Blumenthal. There are numerous other candidates who can easily win the seat. Get him out, and then coalesce around whatever's the best one (I'm sure you guys have a fondness for Lamont, but any will do for me).
You don't have to rec this diary. But for fuck's sake, rec something about the issue. It's going to blow up tomorrow morning, I can guarantee you. It's already all over every blog I read that posts this late at night. If we don't get in front of this now, the consequences could be very bad. We're talking loss of the Senate here. Stop the infighting and fix this. Now.