Our political Quote of the Day comes from MSNBC’s First Read on two beset politicos who got in trouble with their own mouths: Connecticut Democratic Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and Kentucky GOP Senate candidate Rand Paul:
*** Blumenthal and Paul: Richard Blumenthal’s struggles in Connecticut (over questions about his military service) and Rand Paul’s (over his views of the 1964 Civil Rights Act) are significant tests. Both men have survived to live another day; both still face some serious questions about their chances in the fall; and both haven’t seen their colleagues rushing to defend them. In Blumenthal’s case, we have yet to see the likes of John Kerry or Jim Webb stick their neck out for the candidate for Connecticut Senate. And then there was this VERY tepid statement from Mitch McConnell’s office on Paul’s troubles: “Among Sen. McConnell’s most vivid memories and most formative events in his career was watching his boss Sen. John Sherman Cooper help pull together the votes to break the filibuster and pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He has always considered the law a monumental achievement for the country and is glad to hear Dr. Paul supports it as well.” And here’s Jon Kyl’s: “I hope he can separate the theoretical and the interesting and the hypothetical questions that college students debate until 2 a.m. from the actual votes we have to cast based on real legislation here.” Ouch. Clearly, both parties are waiting to see if these two can show signs they can dig out of their respective holes and if they can, then they’ll assist. So far, the jury’s out on both.
Whether they can dig themselves out depends on two key factors: (1)that they don’t say anything that further gets them in the news in a negative way (Rand Paul is off to a lousy start with his comments that Barack Obama’s tougher comments on BP are “unAmerican” since “accidents happen” in oil spills) AND (2)that since they are now clear targets and stories on them have huge interest the new and/or old media don’t unearth some more things that prove to hurt them, their races and by osmosis their party.
When there is interest in a story editors will want to see if there is anything else on it to top the competition. So you can bet your dwindling savings accounts that if there are more tidbits about Blumenthal or Paul they will come to light in the coming weeks.
But for now, as First Read notes, they’ve survived to live another day unless they decide to commit political suicide by mouth after their neath-death experiences…
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.