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Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal gave the classic "I misspoke" defense for statements reported in the New York Times that he served as a Marine "in Vietnam" rather than "during Vietnam." But some apparent flaws with the Times story have muddied what at first appeared to be the classic political "gotcha" story.

It’s now clear that the New York Times was sloppy in its report on Connecticut Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal (photo). Maybe the fact that he told the truth about his Vietnam-era military service doesn’t negate his saying something totally misleading a few minutes later. But the Times should have gotten out the whole story at once. You can consider me one Times reader who feels manipulated this morning.

To review: On Monday night, the Times posted a story reporting that Blumenthal had, on several occasions, falsely claimed to have served in Vietnam when he was in the Marine Corps. “We have learned something important since the days that I served in Vietnam,” he said at a speech in 2008. Weirdly, the Times also reported that he’d apparently misled people about having been captain of the Harvard swim team. In fact, he was never a member.

Yesterday, in a follow-up, the Times reported that former congressman Chris Shays had grown increasingly uneasy over the years as he watched Blumenthal transform himself from a humble Vietnam-era veteran into someone who had actually served in the war. “He just kept adding to the story, the more he told it,” Shays was quoted as saying.

But then, later yesterday, the tide turned. The Associated Press reported that Blumenthal truthfully described his military service in the same speech in which he said “I served in Vietnam.” In the opening moments of the speech, he correctly described himself as “as someone who served in the military during the Vietnam era.”

(Click "continue" to keep reading.)

The Hartford Courant, Connecticut’s largest newspaper, is being sued by the Journal Inquirer of Manchester for plagiarizing 11 stories and publishing them under Courant reporter bylines.