Did Rival Give Vietnam Story To The 'New York Times'?

With speculation about Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal’s “misstatements” about his military record focusing on the question of whether he did it to make himself look better or whether he was just crazy enough to believe it, the more interesting part of the whole thing, to me, is the role of Republican Senate candidate Linda McMahon’s campaign (McMahon is in a primary race with former Rep. Rob Simmons) in giving the story to the New York Times, which broke it on Monday evening. As you will recall, the McMahon campaign reposted a story on her website giving her credit for feeding the information to the Times, then quickly withdrew it. How does the Times address her involvement in the whole thing?

Yesterday, a spokeswoman for the paper told Politico that “[A]nyone reading it can tell that it was the product of extensive independent reporting — including our FOIA of his military records,” which doesn’t exactly resolve the situation. But what about today? In its only mention of McMahon in its Blumenthal follow-up story, the paper today notes:

The Republican Party’s state convention is also on Friday, and Mr. Simmons is in a fight for delegates with Linda McMahon, the professional wrestling impresario, who has said she will spend as much as $50 million to win the seat.

Ms. McMahon’s campaign sought to claim credit for aspects of The Times’s article, apparently in a bid to impress Republican delegates that her resources would give her the greatest chance of defeating Mr. Blumenthal, who had seemed invincible.

Okay, that clears things up!