*** UPDATE *** Note to the Giannoulias campaign: If you’re gonna use a surrogate, make sure the surrogate knows what she’s talking about. From a press release…
The negative campaign being waged against my 21 years of service in the United States Navy Reserve turned from dirty to ridiculous. Yesterday, WFLD allowed a partisan surrogate for Alexi Giannoulias to make ludicrous accusations without challenge or correction.
According to Giannoulias’ surrogate State Representative Linda Chapa LaVia (D-Aurora), I should “apologize to all the veterans especially the veterans during the Vietnam era because that’s when he supposedly served.” I was 13 years old when the Vietnam Paris Peace Accords were signed in 1973.
Rep. Chapa LaVia was on a roll. She also said “allegations are starting to come out where he falsified that he served in Iraq and Afghanistan too.” I served over Iraq as part of Operation Northern Watch in 2000 and twice served in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
The video…
Man, what a screwup that was.
[ *** End of Update *** ]
* The Tribune completely ignored the uproar last week over the Department of Defense memo that expressed concerns about Congressman Mark Kirk’s partisan political activities during two tours of active duty. Instead, the paper assigned two reporters to work on a story about semantics…
When Republican Senate candidate Mark Kirk says he repeatedly deployed to Afghanistan with the Navy, he’s referring to two-week training missions as part of his annual reservist requirements.
After acknowledging a series of misstatements that embellished his Navy service, Kirk is being challenged over his use of the military term “deployment,” and this could be yet another opportunity for critics to parse his words in what has recently become a resume-bashing battle with Democratic Senate opponent Alexi Giannoulias.
Deployment can mean more than one thing in the military, but it is often used to describe service members going off to war for an extended time.
From the Department of Defense’s Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms…
deployment
(DOD) 1. In naval usage, the change from a cruising approach or contact disposition to a disposition for battle.
(DOD) 2. The movement of forces within operational areas.
(DOD) 3. The positioning of forces into a formation for battle.
(DOD) 4. The relocation of forces and materiel to desired operational areas. Deployment encompasses all activities from origin or home station through destination, specifically including intra-continental United States, intertheater, and intratheater movement legs, staging, and holding areas. See also deployment order; deployment planning; prepare to deploy order.
Item “4″ appears to support Kirk’s claim that he used the proper term. The Kirk campaign reportedly sent that definition to the Tribune, but it’s not mentioned anywhere in the article.
* Speaking of semantics…
U.S. Rep. Phil Hare’s use of the word “veteran” to describe his military service has angered some local military veterans who say he’s improperly taking on the title.
However, a survey of advocacy groups, lawyers and government officials shows that there’s no standard definition of the word.
In fact, while Hare’s service doesn’t appear to meet the basic legal definition of “veteran” used by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for the purpose of receiving benefits, some of the largest veterans organizations in the country say he’s properly using the word when referring to his own service.
Hare served in the Army Reserves during the Vietnam War. He was recently confronted by two supporters of his Republican opponent Bobby Schilling who said he shouldn’t be using that term in one portion of his biography. Schilling at one point claimed on his website that Hare “presumably” joined the reserves to get out of serving in battle, but Hare objected and the passage was removed.
Mark Kirk claims that he is a “21-year Navy veteran” on his own website. But despite the fact that Kirk actually serves in the Naval Reserves, nobody has challenged him on that topic.
* Kirk, by the way, showed his foreign policy chops in a Sun-Times article…
The wars between Mexico’s drug cartels are closer than you think, Senate candidate Mark Kirk says.
“The West Coast [of Mexico] Sinaloa Cartel has been attacking the East Coast Juarez Cartel. We should feel somewhat concerned about this because the Juarez Cartel is our guys — they control the drug trade in Chicago,” Kirk says, only half-joking, to audiences on the campaign trail.
Alexi Giannoulias’ prescription for solving the drug problem was the same old, same old…
“The U.S. must do more to curtail the growing threat posed by Mexican drug cartels. I have recommended a two-pronged approach. First, we must embrace a policy that not only strengthens our borders, but also reduces American demand for these drugs through prevention and treatment. Second, we must strengthen our gun control enforcement to ensure that American weapons don’t get into the hands of Mexican criminals. Ninety percent of assault weapons in the hands of drug traffickers in Mexico come from the U.S. Just as Mexico must help to stop the flow of drugs from south to north, we must curb gun flows from north to south.”
Legalization would wipe out the cartels, but nobody ever wants to mention that.
* Related…
* Why lie? Military phonies on the increase, watchdogs say
* Treasurer extends benefits to gay, lesbian employees
* Giannoulias to amend policy on domestic partners
* Giannoulias approves benefits for domestic partners
- OneMan - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 9:57 am:
Wow, Alexi makes that change about 2 weeks before the pride parade… What a co-inc-i-dence…
- Cincinnatus - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 10:02 am:
Rich Miller said,
“Legalization would wipe out the cartels…”
Didn’t know you were a Libertarian, Rich! ;-{)>
- shore - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 10:10 am:
the kirk veteran story is over, there were about 2.5 million bites at the apple, and if reporters want to eat the seeds so be it, but there are other issues to discuss.
- wordslinger - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 10:15 am:
If nothing else, after Kirk and the goof out in Connecticut, politicians can’t say they weren’t warned that their war stories are going to get a thorough vetting. It’s low-hanging fruit.
- Ghost - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 10:25 am:
The tribne is an expert on semantics…for example they call for cutting employee pay and benefits to balance the States budget, all while asking a bankruptcy court to approve millions in bonuses for their own employees…. oh wait thats not semantics its hyprocsy…
Kirk’s many inflations of is record are more then semnatics over words….Kirk chose certian descriptions and references to intentionaly mislead over his bona fides.
- Ahoy - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 10:28 am:
It’s really too bad about Kirk’s over embellishment about his military record. He has a much deeper understanding of the foreign and domestic issues than Alexi. If this race was simply about the issues, Kirk wins hands down, he’s just plain gets it over his opponent. However, it’s never really about the issues anymore.
- The REAL Anonymous fka Anonymous - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 10:38 am:
Ahoy has a point.
I think Kirk would have been better off if he didn’t hit so hard and so long on the Broadway Bank “issue”, and just kept “showing off” by talking about his knowledge of the issues, thus hopefully proving why he should be Senator. It almost seems as if the Kirk Campaign thought that they’d be able to inflict enough damage on Giannoulias with Broadway Bank this early in the Campaign that he’d never get up again.
Kind of what one might do to a Primary opponent.
- The REAL Anonymous fka Anonymous - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 10:44 am:
Or, to a Dan Seals, where the Voter population is smaller and less complex (i.e., better known and more “reliable”).
- todd - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 10:46 am:
the term veteran means that an individual spent 180 days consecutivly on active duty. You could join the Guard or Reserve go to basic and Advanced training lasting just shy of 6 months, come home. go back for another school lasting say 4 months, do your annual active duty of 2 weeks and even be deployed on operations lasting less then 6 months and retire after 20 years of service and NOT meet the definition for benefits. Now you would qualify for bennies with retirement.
But if this is now what G and co are going after they are reaching to far.
I may not be happy with what Kirk has said or done in this flap over his career. But for Phil Hare or anyone else, if you have a discharge from any branch of service you count as a vet.
Now we might quibble about someone who didn’t pass boot camp and got a medical or something. But if you make it past boot, and ending up getting promoted at some point, you’re a vet.
As for deployment issues, in my eyes, if you are on orders and leave your home base/port for duty it’s a deployment.
Case in point during the first gulf war I was called for active duty. i left home for my duty station of Madison, and then left for procesing in Minnisota. Then off to Yuma AZ where I was stationed.
we mobilized our gear and teams. Packed and left on government orders in support of the war. I never left the states, but engaged in active military operations on the border with live ammo and federal athorities — It was a deployment.
If Kirk left the states in support of the War for more than 24/48 hours it was a delpoyment. i say that becuase there are flight crews that leave the states for support missions and fly and return in that time frame. We can argue if that is a deployment — which one normally thinks of as picking up and leaving as oppose to a weekend stint. Note the B2 bommbers flew combat mission out of their base in Missouri and returned home about a 36 hour round trip.
- (618) Democrat - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 10:47 am:
Who cares what Kirk says about the drug cartels, or anything for that matter? He is a liar. Is this another tidbit of so called knowledge that Kirk has fabricated? Every thing Kirk says should be viewed with suspicion and fact checked.
- grand old partisan - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 10:50 am:
Our usage of the word “veteran” to refer principally to former soldiers dates back to before the US had a large standing army. If someone back then was a former soldier, it was most likely because they were called up to, or volunteered for, service in a war. Thus, there was little need to distinguish between a “veteran” and a “combat veteran.” That changed during the Cold War, during which time an active standing army was maintained. I think it is generally accepted that a willingness to make oneself available for combat during an extended career of military service qualifies one for “veteran” status, and that those who actually served in combat zones should be honored with a more descriptive qualifier.
That all being said, I think there are relevant differences between Kirk and Hare’s service histories that should be noted. Yes, both were Reservists, but the length of service is not unimportant. Neither is the context of their enlistments. Kirk’s has made himself available for service over a 20 year career that began at a time when there were no active conflicts on the horizon; Hare’s 6 year commitment began at a time when there was an active war in which he could have enlisted. That could explain why some Vet groups take more umbridge at Hare’s use of the term than Kirk’s.
- The REAL Anonymous fka Anonymous - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 10:51 am:
Have to wonder who came up with the idea of emphasizing the whole “ethics and reform” message and whether all of that hinged on Broadway Bank. Maybe there’s more to come. However, at this point it almost seems as if they thought they’d be able to use that message, hit Alexi on it real hard with Broadway Bank, and then tuck it away.
- Justice - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 10:54 am:
Embellishing one’s record for political purposes is simply a trust issue. I don’t trust any of these guys, even with the flap over service, so this just adds to the disdain I have for them.
As to saving us from pot through prevention and treatment….good luck with that. As long as there are frozen snickers and cream filled donuts there will be pot, and vice versa.
- FillB - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 10:57 am:
“the kirk veteran story is over”
Well, shore says the story is over. So I guess that’s it.
- The REAL Anonymous fka Anonymous - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 10:58 am:
lol I didn’t want to say anything, but I thought the same thing.
- The REAL Anonymous fka Anonymous - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 10:59 am:
Interesting handle, BTW, FillB.
- Fed up - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 11:04 am:
Hmm alexi with the stroke of a pen gets to choose who gets benifiets. The state needs to act in unison on these issues not agency by agency. Kinda of typical though the state is broke so alexi has a plan to spend more
money we don’t have. He may be qualified to go to DC after all.
- MrJM - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 11:04 am:
From the website of the nation’s largest veterans service organization, the American Legion:
If you are currently on active duty, serving the United States honorably, anywhere in the world, or have served honorably during any of the following eligible war eras, we invite you to become a member of The American Legion.
April 6, 1917 to Nov. 11, 1918 (World War I)
Dec. 7, 1941 to Dec. 31, 1946 (World War II)
June 25, 1950 to Jan. 31, 1955 (Korean War)
Feb. 28, 1961 to May 7, 1975 (Vietnam War)
Aug. 24, 1982 to July 31, 1984 (Lebanon / Grenada)
Dec. 20, 1989 to Jan. 31, 1990 (Panama)
Aug. 2, 1990 to today (Gulf War / War On Terrorism)
Maybe the Legion throws the term “vet” around too loosely for some, but I sure ain’t gonna argue with ‘em.
– MrJM
http://www.legion.org/join
- (618) Democrat - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 11:06 am:
@shore 10:10 Kirk is a serial fabricator and he has been for many years. As more of Kirk’s self serving fabrications are examined there will be much more to come.
- Rob_N - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 11:13 am:
Fed up,
The ‘benefits’ Giannoulias put in place are to allow people to take UNPAID leave under FMLA rules — just like private businesses can do.
What part of “unpaid” impacts the state budget?
- todd - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 11:15 am:
GOP — I agree but I’m no real fan of Hare. But if he did his stint hes a vet. some may take issue with it, but he is a vet. he can even claim vietnam era veteran, but not a combat vet like the guy in Mass did.
In tadys world we relay way to much on guard and reserve forces. this is due to the clinton peace dividend from cutting over 10 active army divisions.
Hare is entitled to the status of Verteran, he wore a uniform, got a discharge — honorable I’ll assume. thats more than a lot of others did. I’ll not question his motive for which part of the service he choose or why and the timing.
- Carl Nyberg - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 11:36 am:
I’d like to see Kirk interviewed by a journalist who knows his/her stuff and gets into detail on issues, especially big issues.
I suspect Kirk reveals himself to have much less of a grasp of issues than people assume.
Kirk’s specialty is manipulating the media. Based on my experience Kirk doesn’t care what’s happening in the real world. He cares about how to manipulate information in a way that benefits him politically.
- The REAL Anonymous fka Anonymous - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 11:42 am:
===@shore 10:10===
lol Many fabricators floating around out there right now it seems. Good times.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 11:44 am:
Cincinnatus, I’m not a “capital L” libertarian.
- Rob_N - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 12:25 pm:
Can’t watch the Update vid at work.
Was she specifically there as a Giannoulias surrogate, specifically speaking on his behalf, or did FOX simply invite her on to chat about this-n-that?
Given how Kirk has been blaming everything on someone else, his diatribe doesn’t hold much water.
- well - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 12:41 pm:
==Was she specifically there as a Giannoulias surrogate, specifically speaking on his behalf, or did FOX simply invite her on to chat about this-n-that?==
pssst, hey Rob_N, check this out: https://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5932/p/salsa/event/common/public/?event_KEY=17366
Recognize any names?
- A.B. - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 12:43 pm:
This might be off topic and understandably subject to deletion by Rich, but…
I find it very funny when people come onto this blog to spout campaign talking points, without adding any perspective or original thoughts to the debate.
Reality is that we all have a dog in the fight. Some of us may crisscross the aisle with our support and others are strictly partisan, but really the strict campaign talking points are wasted here.
I know that I have not been innocent of waiving my flag of support for certain candidates, but can’t we all just make an effort to not waste each others time with the blanket “he’s a liar” or “he’s corrupt”. We all know the stories, we aren’t swaying votes on this blog. Let’s try to add some depth, some perspective or some new information.
Please understand that I am not trying to call anyone out on this, just a not-so humble plea.
- OneMan - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 12:45 pm:
Man, I thought Linda had more sense than that….
- Siriusly - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 1:16 pm:
That’s the Linda Chapa Lavia we all know and love!
I be the DCCC people are saying “wow, we got so lucky to get Bill Foster instead of her” right now.
- Skeptical Cynic - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 1:50 pm:
Not sure that its news that Chapa La Via is a dingbat, but if Alexi is going to have a surrugate do work on this issue, it should be an actual combat veteran who can work up some indignation. But Alexi prolly doesn;t know any of those.
- Six Degrees of Separation - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 2:06 pm:
Skeptical-
LCLV was ROTC and National Guard and is still a member of the inactive reserves. Anyone with any military experience, combat or not, should know Kirk was not old enough to serve in Nam.
- Rob_N - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 2:14 pm:
“Well” - That she was a host at a fundraiser doesn’t answer my question, a question which no one else has answered either.
- OneMan - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 2:23 pm:
Unless she started the interview stating ‘I am here for the Alexi campaign’ you are not going to likely get a direct answer Rob_N.
But when you talk about a candidates talking point and are from the same party odds are you are not just doing it out of the blue.
Linda has never struck me as a ‘ding-bat’ but I have to admit I am a bit surprised by this. Me thinks either, A) She was going for the hit a bit too hard and got ahead of herself or B) She isn’t a huge Alexi fan and decided to blow it so she would become ‘Alexi’s go-to vet’ from the legislature.
- 47th Ward - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 2:32 pm:
And now the Onion weighs-in. Brilliant as usual!
http://www.theonion.com/articles/candidate-may-have-lied-about-heroic-death-in-viet,17600/
- Easy - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 2:41 pm:
First, I would have thought it inexplicable that Kirk would get nailed for exaggerating his service.
After that, I thought it would have been inexplicable for the Alexi campaign to screw up a hit on Kirk for exaggerating about his service.
I believe that now leaves me thoughtless.
- Please... - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 2:41 pm:
Hare would do well to stop playing soldier and start better representing the people.
- Sucka free - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 2:42 pm:
“mob banker, mob banker, mob banker ….” for two straight months over and over.
Then when Alexi and team points out the first of many fabrications to come, Kirk decries “dirty” politics. Whatever. I know it is the normal course for campaigns, but, really, this one is more hypocritical than most. What a tool….
BTW, mark my words, if Kirk thinks this attack stings, just wait until October when the real darts come out (goes for Alexi too).
- VanillaMan - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 2:44 pm:
Linda’s statement is the moment this issue jumped the shark.
You can only get so much mileage from your resume if you don’t inflate it to the point where it becomes an issue.
You can only get so much mileage from your opponents resume inflation to the point where your foolishness in making it an issue becomes the issue.
Linda’s moment shows that this entire thing is done. Enough. It is a skunk. Don’t touch it.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 2:47 pm:
===Linda’s statement is the moment this issue jumped the shark.===
So, is that the fourth or fifth time that you’ve made this claim in the past two weeks, VMan?
- Team Sleep - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 2:59 pm:
This truly is a race to the bottom.
Alexi embellished his role with Broadway Bank when he ran for state treasurer and people bought it, but he got thrown under the bus by several news outlets for poor interviews, lack of policy knowledge/know-how and a penchant for fabrication. Of course, he wants us all to forget about that and Broadway Bank. Kirk has been caught embellishing his military record and has been rapped on the knuckles. He’s upset that people dare to question him and now he wants to clear the record however he can. Yikes. Could we have two candidates who are less interested in speaking even half-truths?
And now we see a surrogate making an awful gaffe. I would have expected something from a lowly-paid campaign staffer or, perhaps, a county or township coordinator, but it makes Alexi look bad when a supporter and someone who was authorized to speak on his behalf inserted an off-the-wall statement into a NEWS INTERVIEW.
Can Thanksgiving come soon enough?!
- George - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 3:45 pm:
Chappie never was the sharpest tool in the shed.
- VanillaMan - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 3:52 pm:
So, is that the fourth or fifth time that you’ve made this claim in the past two weeks, VMan?
Third. When your opponent whiffs a softball like this one, the game is over.
- (618) Democrat - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 4:07 pm:
There he goes again.
I wrote earlier that everything that comes out of Kirk’s mouth should be fact checked.
Rep. Chapa LaVia was not on the news program as a surrogate for the Giannoulias campaign as Kirk would have us believe.
Another fabrication.
One more thing, no one has ever attacked Kirks service in the U.S. Navy nor should they.
What has been questioned is the untruths that Kirk continues to spout out uncontrollably.
- UP - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 4:12 pm:
I’m a vet, and did not vote for Kirk in the primary. It does get tiresome, however, to see non-vets who don’t understand military terminology pouring over a 20+ years service record.
Kirk has handled this minor issue badly. While he clearly didn’t earn the intel officer of the year award, he gets no credit for not listing the Rufus award, which he did earn and received. The fact that he didn’t list an award he received is evidence that he isn’t the compulsive exaggerator some claim.
That said, the continued nitpicking over Kirk’s record strikes me as the media trying to keep the Gainoullias campaign from flatlining so they can sell papers this fall.
- Ghost - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 4:13 pm:
For Vman the game is over,
for everyone else it is clea we are at the top of the 2nd, and Kirk cant stop the runs coming in.
- 10th Indy - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 4:43 pm:
More like a little rally at the bottom of the fifth and Alexi’s pinch-hitter strikes out stranding the runners. Top of the order coming up and a long four innings to go….
- Rob_N - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 4:51 pm:
UP misses the point by saying, “While he clearly didn’t earn the intel officer of the year award, he gets no credit for not listing the Rufus award, which he did earn and received. The fact that he didn’t list an award he received is evidence that he isn’t the compulsive exaggerator some claim.”
a. He didn’t “earn” an “intel officer of the year award” because there isn’t one. It doesn’t exist.
b. The Rufus Taylor Award that he now claims is what he meant to say all along was actually a unit citation, not an individual honor. It is not “his” award and his continued claims of singular ownership denigrate all the other men and women in the entire attack wing who also had a hand in earning the honor. (Yes, there is a separate Taylor Award given to individuals. This is not the same award earned by the attack wing to which Kirk was attached.)
c. If this were the only item which he exaggerated it wouldn’t be too big a deal. But, it’s one among many references to awards, combat service, overseas deployment, command positions, “being fired on”, etc. that he has had to scrub from his websites and other campaign media because they simply weren’t true.
His was a clear, sustained, oft-repeated, long-term (10+ years) pattern of “misremembering wrong”. In other words, UP, he “misremembered” literally half of his service in the Reserves.
d. Moreover, he has also been warned by his Pentagon superiors to cease campaign activities while on duty as the revelation of the reprimand memo makes clear. (And, again, that memo and the Kirk Senate Campaign response to the Pentagon was made public by someone inside Kirk’s campaign.)
e. The Sun-Times a week ago also researched several of Kirk’s non-military claims about foreign events, etc. and found he had flat-out lied about things like the French military’s policy against high seas pirates and the like.
–
…UP, if you want to excuse Kirk’s serial exaggeration (ie, lying, misremembering, fibbing, overstating…. what-have-you) then at least be fully aware of what it is you are excusing.
- OneMan - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 4:55 pm:
== Rep. Chapa LaVia was not on the news program as a surrogate for the Giannoulias campaign as Kirk would have us believe.
Another fabrication. ==
Proof?
And Alexi’s campaign said so isn’t an answer….
- UP - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 5:26 pm:
Rob, like I said, it’s tiresome explaining military terms/etiquette to non-vets.
Unit awards belong to individuals who were in the unit when the award was earned. In the Army, we wear unit awards on the right side of our uniform. It’s legit for Kirk to list, even if it’s not an officiall Navy award. It happens often in the military.
The partisan political activity is not an issue here. Nice try distracting.
Like I said, I didn’t vote for him, and I think he handled it badly. But I think people who haven’t served are straining. And the media is encouraging it because they want a horse race in November. There wasn’t one 10 days ago.
- (618) Democrat - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 6:05 pm:
@oneman 4:55
Call WFLD and ask them. Real simple fact check.
- P. - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 6:42 pm:
Wait, haven’t we learned that Kirk speaks like an authority on numerous complicated foreign policy issues, but sometimes doesn’t let the facts get in the way of him showing off his “chops”?
BTW, my reading of the New Yorker article on this exact topic from last month led me to believe it’s a lot more complicated than east coast vs. west coast, and I don’t have that cool security clearance he likes to refer to … Kirk Biggie vs. Tupac’ed it.
C’mon …
- Anonymous - Monday, Jun 14, 10 @ 7:26 pm:
Giannoulias = Blago.
Pass.