WASHINGTON — The exposure of Connecticut Attorney General
Richard Blumenthal as a hoaxster boasting of a non-existent
record of service in the Vietnam War is a splendid example of
what is known as the Taranto Principle. Someday the Taranto
Principle will be taught in all the journalism schools, assuming
one or two survive the present detumescence of journalism.
Formulated by the inimitable Wall Street Journal
editorialist James Taranto, the principle posits that when the
Liberal mainstream press indulges a Liberal politician’s deceits
or fails to hold the politician accountable for his misbehavior,
it encourages the politician to ascend to a higher level of
misbehavior.
Thus, for years Senator Jean-François Kerry was wont to
boast of his exploits in the Vietnam War. His sympathizers in the
press never bothered to remind him or to remind the citizenry
that Kerry had embellished his military record and – worse! —
upon returning from Vietnam he cast his lot with the
rising anti-war movement. As an opponent of the war he even was
emboldened to appear before Congress and mendaciously testify
that his comrades had “personally raped, cut off ears, cut off
heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals,
and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly
shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of
Genghis Khan.”
This garbagespiel was televised nationally and he should
have known that tapes of it were readily available in 2004 when
he ran for president. Nonetheless, rather than stressing less
controversial aspects of his years of public life, thanks to the
Liberal press’s indulgence of his exaggerated claims to heroism
he made the risky choice of running as a veteran of the Vietnam
War. That angered those who had served with him and their
revelations about his service sank his candidacy. The Taranto
Principle is vindicated.
It has been vindicated again with the revelations about
Blumenthal. For years he has been fawned over by the Liberal
press. Pari passu with the passage of time, he has gone from
being a young man who sought five military deferments
during the Vietnam War to claiming repeatedly and falsely that he
actually served in the war. On the way to making those false
claims he did indeed enlist in the Marine Reserve, but he never
served in the war.
In 2008, the New York Times reports that he said
in a speech, “We have learned something important since the days
that I served in Vietnam.” At another point in 2008 the
Times reports that he informed an audience that “I
served during the Vietnam era,” concluding that “I remember the
taunts, the insults, sometimes even physical abuse.” As recently
as a few weeks ago he publicly recalled being spit upon when “we
returned from Vietnam.”
Now his campaign for the United States Senate is in grave
jeopardy. Perhaps it could all have been avoided if years back
the press had taken a look at his claims, reported them, and
chastened him from making the increasingly bold assertions of
nonsense.
As an addendum to the Taranto Principle let me add an
observation. Increasing numbers of candidates for public office,
particularly at the national level, seem given to fantasy. They
are encouraged to tell dramatic stories about themselves. The
press loves it. Goaded by the Taranto Principle it is not long
before those stories become total fantasies. Blumenthal is
obviously one of those fantasists. Had he not been tripped up
this week, he might have soon been telling the electorate about
his Congressional Medal of Honor. Possibly if he somehow manages
to win the Democratic primary he still will, and then when the
stakes are so high and the possibility exists that a Republican
might beat him, will the Times raise doubts about his
Congressional Medal of Honor? Taranto will be watching.
