It’s been a bad week for political hypocrites and liars, with revelations that Democratic Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (in photo) exaggerated his Vietnam service and Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., cheated on his wife with a married aide while espousing family values — and even filmed a pro-abstinence education video with the aide. Blumenthal’s lie was “a grievous insult to those who did serve and fight in Vietnam,” editorialized USA Today, and at least Souder is showing the good sense to step down. But “if the many honest, hardworking but endangered incumbents want to regain public confidence,” the editorial concluded, “one place to start is to show less tolerance for the phonies in their midst, regardless of party affiliation.”
Is the United States as well as its president on the wane as an influence around the globe? Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen 
It’s troubling that someone who wants to be secretary of state, Kansas’ top election official, could violate campaign-finance law once last year, let alone twice. It’s worse because the candidate, Chris Steineger, has been a state senator from Kansas City, Kan., for 13 years. He’s had plenty of time to learn the admittedly tricky campaign laws. He’s also been present for legislative debates over whether to change the law he violated when he used his Senate campaign fund to pay for political work in anticipation of a statewide run for office. It’s hard to imagine that Democratic voters will be fully reassured by his statement that he “picked up the wrong checkbook and wrote the wrong check,” as Steineger said Tuesday before the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission Follow us
