{"id":570893,"date":"2010-05-19T11:27:27","date_gmt":"2010-05-19T15:27:27","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogs.courant.com,2010:\/capitol_watch\/\/9.78263"},"modified":"2010-05-19T13:01:30","modified_gmt":"2010-05-19T17:01:30","slug":"blumenthals-vets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/570893","title":{"rendered":"Blumenthal’s Vets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richard Blumenthal surrounded himself with veterans at yesterday’s presser where he explained his occasional military embellishments. The message to Connecticut voters was clear: If these folks don’t have a problem with the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, why should you?<\/p>\n

One of those who stood with the AG has already drawn scrutiny. Elliott Storm of Milford. Conservative veterans groups and bloggers claim that Storm is a poser who invented a record of heroism.<\/p>\n

RedState.com <\/a>says “Elliott Storm would also be known as Charles Joseph Trumpower. He enlisted in the Marines and, unlike Blumenthal, actually served in Vietnam where he got one less Purple Heart than John Kerry. Mr. Trumpower, for reasons unknowable to anyone but him, decided reality was insufficiently impressive so he commissioned himself a Marine officer and added a Bronze Star with “V” device and another Purple Heart to his awards.”<\/p>\n

I could not reach Storm for comment, but my colleague Susan Campbell<\/a>, interviewed him briefly yesterday afternoon. <\/p>\n

Referring to criticism of Blumenthal, Storm said, “you know who this kind of thing bothers? People who never served, never wore a uniform, that’s who. They don’t understand your commitment. I’ve been living with these sacred scars for 40 years, this harassment and belittlement. We are still living it.”<\/p>\n

Storm isn’t the only veteran whose appearance at yesterday’s press conference has drawn criticism.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Phil Vasington, president of Leathernecks Connecticut MC, a group of Marines who also happen to be motorcycle enthusiasts, was annoyed when he spotted a newspaper photo of one of his members at the press conference wearing the club’s official regalia.<\/p>\n

“We’re a non-political organization,” Vasington said this morning. “We’re not taking a stance on the issue.”<\/p>\n

But when a member wearing the group’s vest was caught on camera hugging Blumenthal, people could assume the group is supporting the embattled Democrat, an assumption Vasington wants to correct.<\/p>\n

Then there was Peter Galgano, spokesman for the Marine Corps League of Connecticut. Galgano had a prime role at the presser, introducing Blumenthal and saying he has always been “completely straightforward about his honorable service in the Marine Corps Reserves.”<\/p>\n

Michael A. Blum, the league’s National Executive  Director, wants to make it clear that Galgano’s appearance was in no way sanctioned by the group.<\/p>\n

“The Marine Corps League categorically disassociates itself from any comments made by a person who spoke at a press conference today in defense of Connecticut Attorney General Blumenthal and referred to himself as a member of the Marine Corps League several times, giving the impression that his statements were representative of the Marine Corps League’s position on the matter,” Blum said in a statement.
 
“The National Bylaws of the Marine Corps League clearly state, in part: ‘the Marine Corps League shall never take part in any labor or management dispute or issue, and it shall be ever non-sectarian, non-political, and non-partisan; nor shall it be used as a medium of political ambition or preferment.’
 
“Whether or not the politician misspoke or distorted his military background is a matter for the citizens of his state to decide.  The Marine Corps League has not authorized any of its members to make a public statement on this issue in that doing so would violate our covenants.”
 
   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Richard Blumenthal surrounded himself with veterans at yesterday’s presser where he explained his occasional military embellishments. The message to Connecticut voters was clear: If these folks don’t have a problem with the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, why should you? One of those who stood with the AG has already drawn scrutiny. Elliott Storm of Milford. Conservative […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4000,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-570893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4000"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570893\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}