Not just a House aphorism, but a statement too often proven true. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has been allowing people to believe that he is a Vietnam veteran, to paint it in the most charitable light, despite having never done so. In fact, he apparently successfully did just about everything possible to avoid being drafted and later deployed overseas. Why would he lie about something so easy to repudiate? It isn’t like being a veteran was a requirement for getting his job; making these false statements can only have had a very minor effect on his approval rating, while discovery that they were false will surely scuttle his political career.
Some are saying that part of being a politician is built on exaggerations and half-truths, such as Secretary Clinton having faced sniper fire in Bosnia and Senator McCain having never referred to himself as a “Maverick”, and that the line between truth and fiction blurs for people in such a position. I can see that point to an extent. Like so many people with everything to lose who still cannot keep their pants on, it seems to be a pathological compulsion. Slate has a humorously rigorous skewering of Blumenthal’s hypocrisy.
The other case in the news at the moment is Floyd Landis admitting to doping. Most people probably forgot about Landis long ago if they ever knew who he was, but since he grew up some 15 miles from my own hometown he was a big local story when he won the Tour de France in 2006. Immediately after the race he was accused of using synthetic testosterone based on lab tests drawn during one stage of the race and stripped of his title. Although it looked unlikely in light of the evidence, I think everyone in Lancaster County wanted to believe that he was innocent, or had been unknowingly doped, or something. The kid with old-order Mennonite parents could not have been a cheater. Today he still denies having used testosterone at the time he was accused, but admits that his entire career was fueled with performance enhancing drugs.
Landis says that he “does not feel guilty” about using performance enhancing drugs, and that doping simply leveled the playing field since every other cyclist does it. That seems to be somewhat valid, but I sure hope he feels guilty about having repeatedly lied to everyone for the last four years. To have cheated and been evasive about it is one thing, but Landis went far beyond that. Recognizing that he would be very unlikely to actually succeed in having his title returned, he nevertheless fought vigorously against the charges, saying this was about his honor and principles. In the course of appeal after appeal he impugned the lab that performed the tests, the French cycling administration in general, and many other people. I realize this is just defense lawyering 101, but it seems especially galling when the consequences of admitting guilt are much less severe than prison time or execution. Landis even used fundraising from fans and believers to finance his appeals. Perhaps it is just because I had a geographical connection with Landis, but he seems like far more of a scumbag than any of the steroid users uncovered in baseball and other sports.