What Was He Thinking?

Sure, maybe most of us do it at some point: Toot our own horns a bit more loudly than the facts might warrant. But it takes real gumption to tell truly big lies about yourself when you hold political office and aspire to move higher. Yet that is exactly what Connecticut State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal did in appearing to claim that he served in the Vietnam War.

The case mystified old friends and colleagues when Blumenthal was caught by the New York Times in his lies during his 2010 run for the Senate. Contrary to his proclamations that he served in Vietnam, military records show that he had obtained at least 5 military determents and then joined the coveted Marine Reserve, a position that virtually guaranteed that one wasn't going to Vietnam.

Of course, Blumenthal could take consolation from the fact that he wasn't the only fibber about his war record during the 2010 campaign season. The Republican candidate for Barack Obama's old Illinois Senate seat, Mark Kirk, was also caught lying about his military record. Kirk stretched the truth on numerous occasions, such as claims that he was "Navy Intelligence Officer of the Year," that he had fought under enemy gunfire, and that he had once commanded the Pentagon war room.