Originally posted in September 2009′s Tenth News by Steve Sheffey
Mark Kirk’s campaign for Senate has been marred by one misstep after another. If he’s the best the Republicans have to offer in this state, expect Illinois to stay blue for a long time.
Quick: What’s the number one issue facing our country? Healthcare? Energy? Iran? In March, almost as if to prove how out of touch he is, Kirk became one of only 37 cosponsors of H.J. Res 41, a joint resolution sponsored by Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) that proposes the Constitution be amended “to prohibit the President from entering into a treaty or other international agreement that would provide for the United States to adopt as legal tender in the United States a currency issued by an entity other than the United States.” With all the issues facing our country, it would be difficult to imagine a less relevant endeavor.
In April, in response to Gov. Quinn’s tax increase proposal, Kirk said that “the people of Illinois are ready to shoot anyone who is going to raise taxes to that degree.” So much for fiscal conservatism. Kirk did not mean it literally, but that kind of rhetoric won’t convince anyone that Kirk is a statesman.
Rich Miller of the nonpartisan Capitol Fax said, “I’ve heard of dogwhistling the base, but that was like a foghorn in a library. I thought Kirk was supposed to be a moderate? He sounds a bit like Alan Keyes on meth. Or maybe Rod Blagojevich before he was hampered by federal bail restrictions.”
Kirk was all set to announce for Senate in April, but then he got frightened by rumors that Lisa Madigan might run. As Kirk held his finger in the wind for so long that it must have gotten chapped, Alexi Giannoulias unequivocally stated that he was in the race to stay. The contrast in character was obvious.
While Kirk kept waiting for Lisa Madigan to decide his future, he went to China. He came back claiming he told the Chinese government that “the budget numbers that the U.S. Government has put forward should not be believed.”
David Weidner, the Wall Street columnist for MarketWatch, called Kirk’s statement “a colossally stupid thing to say.”
Seconds after Lisa Madigan announced she would not run for the Senate, Kirk got on the phone to GOP leaders to tell them he was running. Then he got frightened by the prospect of Andy McKenna running for Senate and began backpedaling.
Kirk’s supporters tell us that Kirk is an independent, middle-of-theroad kind of guy, but that’s not what the GOP party faithful like to hear, so Kirk posted on his own website a chart showing that of the 14 key issues of this Congress, Kirk took the Republican position 13 times.
That’s Kirk, by his own admission (the exception was cap and trade). Naturally, the chart is gone now, but we have copies for anyone who would like to see it.
After Kirk finally announced for Senate, he found time to criticize Pace for not using stimulus money to buy hybrid buses. In other words, for not using the money that Kirk voted against Pace receiving. The chairman of Pace also pointed out that each Pace bus takes 50 cars off the road and that the buses Pace purchases are 30 feet in length and actually get better fuel mileage than the 40-foot hybrids Kirk wanted Pace to buy. Not only that, but previously Pace approached Congressman Kirk for five straight years requesting federal funding to add hybrid buses to its fleet, and each time the request was ignored.
Kirk then discovered Twitter. There are some people who serve their country with quiet dignity. Kirk is not one of those. He continually reminds us that he does regular reserve duty. He tweeted himself into hot water when he possibly violated military rules by disclosing his location while on duty and by working on a political campaign while on active duty. Kirk attempted damage control by saying that his staffers were doing the tweeting, not him. But that raised more questions, because Kirk’s tweets clearly suggest that they were coming from Kirk, himself.
You might think that Kirk would have learned his lesson, but you would be wrong. Just a couple of weeks later, Kirk was caught sending out a tweet while touring a Veterans Affairs hospital, possibly violating the law that prohibits candidates from campaigning on federal property (his tweets feature the Kirk for Senate logo). Not a sign of good judgment or a well-run campaign.
While Kirk was calling attention to himself in almost every way possible, he maintained a stony silence on whether he would have voted to confirm Judge Sotomayor. Alexi Giannoulias has stated unequivocally that he would have voted to confirm Sotomayor. The Senate’s role in confirming Supreme Court nominees is crucial, and should matter to anyone who cares about a woman’s right to choose whether to bear a child, as well as a host of other issues. Obama may appoint several other Supreme Court Justices during his presidency. Kirk continues to refuse to say whether he would have voted yes or no on Sotomayor. It’s a simple question. We deserve a straight answer. Yes or no? If Kirk can’t or won’t answer that question, he doesn’t deserve to be our senator.
Kirk is aiming to become the first sitting U.S. Congressman elected to statewide office since Rod Blagojevich. I don’t think he’ll make it.
