[UPDATE BELOW]

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is holding a press conference today to defend himself against a damaging expose in the NY Times, which asserts that he repeatedly lied and exaggerated about his military service during the Vietnam War. This is big trouble for Democrats because Blumenthal is running to claim Chris Dodd's Senate seat, and the article catches their guy with his pants way down and on fire.

According to the Times, Blumenthal has on numerous occasions misrepresented his service during the war, claiming or intimating that he had actually gone to Vietnam. In reality, Blumenthal repeatedly used deferments and college enrollment to avoid the draft. Only when his deferments ran out and he drew a low draft lottery number in late 1969 did he join the Marine Reserves, which "were not being activated for Vietnam and were seen as a shelter for young privileged men," according to David Curry, a professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and an expert on the Vietnam draft.

Blumenthal, the son of a successful businessman who grew up in NYC, sat out the war at Harvard, Trinity College in Cambridge, and eventually made his way to the White House as an assistant to Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who was serving as Urban Affairs adviser. When his luck finally ran out and he had to join the Reserves, he served his country refurbishing tent decks and showers at a campground for underprivileged Washington children participating in Christmas toy drives, and recycling. He never went to Vietnam, but that hasn't stopped him from telling veterans, "I served during the Vietnam era. I remember the taunts, the insults, sometimes even physical abuse." You can almost hear those ungrateful hippies, even today: "Hey hey Blumenthal, how many decks did you refurbish in all?!"

And it doesn't end there: The Times reports that after Slate and the Hartford Courant published fawning features reporting that he was captain of the swim team at Harvard, Blumenthal never bothered to correct them. He was on the swim team about as much as he was in the shit in 'Nam, which is to say not at all.

UPDATE: At his press conference this afternoon, Blumenthal struck a defiant tone, insisting that he "can't be responsible for all the mistakes in all the articles - thousands of them." And he explained that when he misspoke about his military service, it was "absolutely unintentional... and I regret that. But I will not allow anyone to take a few missplaced words and impugn my record of service to my country. I served in the United States Marine Corps Reserves, and I am proud of it.'' To this day, America is a safer, stronger country because of the DC toy drives Blumenthal bravely organized during Vietnam.