The good ship Blumenthal is punched and in flames, clearly, by the New York Times investigation of his misstatements of his military service.

Blumenthal served in the Marine Corps Reserves, after obtaining several deferments, the paper reports. But he never served in Vietnam, as he has stated at least two times and intimated at others.

It's a bad story for the Blumenthal campaign, precisely because it adds a thick streak of tarnish to what had seemed pure sterling in his record, even for those who opposed his politics. Blumenthal, by the grunt and grumble of Hartford, is generally seen as almost annoyingly honest, the irksome Gallant to a state of electoral Goofuses. His cause for ridicule is his propensity to hurl himself in front of cameras, not a propensity to lie once he gets himself there.

That this is terribly bad news for the Blumenthal campaign is obvious from the statements of Republican rivals like Rob Simmons (a Vietnam veteran in the traditional sense) and Linda McMahon, whose campaign gleefully took credit Monday night for planting the video of Blumenthal stating he had served in Vietnam with the Times.

It's a strange mistake for the notably cautious attorney general to make. Note this TV appearance from just a few days after his entrance into the Senate race, on WFSB-TV's Face the State. At about 13:19, host Dennis House asks about Blumenthal's service "in the Marines." In his answer, a statement of support for U.S. policy in Afghanistan, Blumenthal makes a point of stating that he served "in the United States Marine Corps Reserve, and proudly."

Similarly, he was described as a member of the reserve in Beth Hamilton's 2004 profile in the Courant (one of the articles that describes Blumenthal's apparently non-existent service as captain of the swim team at Harvard).

Strange that someone who had been so meticulous in talking about something so important could also have been, it seems, so careless.

Tuesday morning's press conference has a whole election riding on it now.