Of all the outrageous lies someone could come up with to bolster their political career, this has got to be one of the worst. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has spent the last three decades lying, saying that he fought in Vietnam and was harassed and abused because of his service. Turns out, he never went to Vietnam.

At a ceremony honoring veterans and senior citizens who sent presents to soldiers overseas, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut rose and spoke of an earlier time in his life.

“We have learned something important since the days that I served in Vietnam,” Mr. Blumenthal said to the group gathered in Norwalk in March 2008. “And you exemplify it. Whatever we think about the war, whatever we call it — Afghanistan or Iraq — we owe our military men and women unconditional support.”

There was one problem: Mr. Blumenthal, a Democrat now running for the United States Senate, never served in Vietnam. He obtained at least five military deferments from 1965 to 1970 and took repeated steps that enabled him to avoid going to war, according to records.

The deferments allowed Mr. Blumenthal to complete his studies at Harvard; pursue a graduate fellowship in England; serve as a special assistant to The Washington Post’s publisher, Katharine Graham; and ultimately take a job in the Nixon White House.

In 1970, with his last deferment in jeopardy, he landed a coveted spot in the Marine Reserve, which virtually guaranteed that he would not be sent to Vietnam. He joined a unit in Washington that conducted drills and other exercises and focused on local projects, like fixing a campground and organizing a Toys for Tots drive.

Quite a far cry from his version of the story:

Here’s the transcript via Hot Air.

In fact, we are failing many of our veterans again. We are failing them just as we did after the Vietnam War, just as we did our World War II and Korean [sic] veterans. This nation has a way of sending young men and women to war, and then forgetting them when they come home. And that is unforgivable. And I know Congressmen like Chris Shays are working hard to change that situation. We have learned something very important since the days I served in Vietnam, and you exemplify it. Whatever we think about the war, whatever we call it, Afghanistan or Iraq, we owe our military men and women unconditional support.

This man should be ashamed of himself, parading himself around as not only a Vietnam vet, but also as a victim of the abuse that real Vietnam vets suffered. He claims now that he simply “misspoke”, never said he actually went to Vietnam, and wasn’t being misleading. That may technically be true, that he never said he was in Vietnam, but he was certainly misleading voters to believe that he had served in Vietnam.

But an examination of his remarks at the ceremonies shows that he does not volunteer that his service never took him overseas. And he describes the hostile reaction directed at veterans coming back from Vietnam, intimating that he was among them.

In 2003, he addressed a rally in Bridgeport, where about 100 military families gathered to express support for American troops overseas. “When we returned, we saw nothing like this,” Mr. Blumenthal said. “Let us do better by this generation of men and women.”

At a 2008 ceremony in front of the Veterans War Memorial Building in Shelton, he praised the audience for paying tribute to troops fighting abroad, noting that America had not always done so.

“I served during the Vietnam era,” he said. “I remember the taunts, the insults, sometimes even physical abuse.”

I gotta say, reading that makes me sick. Lying about your military service is despicable enough. Lying about it to make yourself out to be some kind of victim to garner voters is even more disgusting. If the man had any class whatsoever, he’d leave the race. He’s staying in right now, but as this story spreads, hopefully he’ll quit and crawl back into whatever miserable little hole he came from.

Meanwhile, the Republican candidate, Rob Simmons, actually is a decorated Vietnam veteran. He spent 19 months in Vietnam and earned two Bronze Stars. He retired as a Colonel with 37 years of experience in the Army. You can contribute to his campaign here.