I read the Blumenthal story in the NY Times and didn't feel it was a real "hit piece"

[fujiyama]

In fact, it revealed a lot of things I didn't know about him - mostly positive. Having not lived in CT, I didn't know much about him, but he sounds like over the years he really has been a stand up guy on veteran's affairs.

But it also makes me wonder "why?". Why did he drag this thing on for as long as he did. It's frustrating because it was seemingly so unnecessary. He's done a lot for veterans in CT and I was really impressed by his dedication. He's a snippet:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/nyregion/19veterans.html?hp
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"When Paul Kingman, a Navy veteran who lost feeling in his feet after chemotherapy, called Mr. Blumenthal’s office in 2007, he was trying to get a hearing for disability payments from the Social Security Administration. So it came as a surprise when Mr. Blumenthal himself got on the line.

“He’s a nice guy; he was cordial,” Mr. Kingman, 50, said from his home in Naugatuck. “Busy people like him, with all the rest going on in the state, I was surprised he’d have time for little old me.”

A week after his conversation with Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Kingman learned that his hearing, which he had been trying to get for nearly four years, had been scheduled.

“I don’t know who he talked to, but next thing you know, I had a hearing,” said Mr. Kingman, who at the time was living on $200 a month and food stamps. “He stood up for me.”

Cecelia Louis had a similar story: after five years trying to obtain health care from the Connecticut Veterans Affairs Department for her 78-year-old husband, a Korean War veteran, she reached out to the attorney general’s office, which resolved the issue in a matter of weeks. "

[uponit7771]

1. It looks like he said he was IN nam once and never said it again, I can understand 1 mistake

[tblue]

2. Gee. Glad I haven't had to answer for every time I misspoke.

There just isn't enough time!

[Jennicut]

3. Precisely why I will still vote for him in November.

[beachmom]

4. He DIDN'T drag it on. We have one real instant where he misstated his record.

And hundreds of times where he said it right INCLUDING on his bio page. I have been hearing that CT reporters are all perplexed by the NYT piece; that Blumenthal has always been straight about his service.