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* Mark Kirk received generally positive reviews last week for owning up to not telling the truth about his past…
The past few weeks, Congressman Mark Kirk has been on the defensive about his military resume. Now the Republican Senate hopeful is owning up to his mistakes with full disclosure.
He certainly sounded contrite for inflating his military and school teaching records…
“I am not perfect and was careless. I will do better and I will make sure that this never happens again.” […]
“But I take this all very seriously. This is a high office, great trust is put in the people that we entrust with this office and I think the scrutiny is absolutely appropriate.”
And…
“I have made mistakes concerning certain aspects of my accomplishments and experiences, and I apologize for those mistakes and I pledge to correct those errors.”
* Carol Marin was mostly unimpressed with Kirk’s performance, but she wrote last week that it was time to change the subject, with one, major caveat…
Unless there are new revelations to come, it’s time to move on.
Well, it looks like Kirk is back to his old stonewalling, dodgy ways…
Earlier this year Kirk told the Sun-Times, “Last year, I was with a Dutch armor unit in Kandahar, getting shot at and being calm, cool and collected. We each had this kind of Dutch candy called ‘drop.’ I went through about 3000 calories getting what they call ‘nervous in the service.’”
But Tuesday, when asked several times at his news conference if he stood by that assertion, Kirk would only repeat that from now on he would say nothing beyond what’s in his fitness reports when it comes to his war record.
That claim is absolutely untenable. He’s no longer going to answer questions about his service record? And all he will do is point to his fitness reports? Not enough…
There is no mention in those reports of Kirk coming under fire during that time period.
You cannot on the one hand promise never to let these things happen again, and then refuse to clear up your record a week later. You cannot say media scrutiny is just fine and dandy with you because you’re campaigning for a “high office” and then a week later refuse to answer any and all questions on a specific topic.
Here’s the tortuous exchange…
REPORTER: You once told the Sun-Times, this was your quote: “Last year, I was with a Dutch armor unit in Kandahar, getting shot at.” Can you tell me a little bit more about it- when did it happen, what were the circumstances?
KIRK: Well as I went through my speech last week, I’ve made mistakes in my military record. I apologize for them and going forward will make sure that never happens again. But the way I’ll answer that is I released my fitness reports…The way I will go forward is I released my officer fitness reports for all 21 years of service in the Navy and will let the official record stand.
REPORTER: But you’re not saying this was a mistake then are you?
KIRK: No but I would refer you all to the officer fitness reports.
REPORTER: They might not have that detail…
KIRK: For me, going forward I will speak through the voices of the commanding officers in the field that assessed my performance, and you will be able to have that if you don’t already.
REPORTER: So that kind of goes as a non-response response?
KIRK: No, for me the officer fitness reports are the official record.
REPORTER: So anything you’ve said in the past, we should just disregard?
KIRK: No I’m saying that let’s stand on my official record to the United States Navy.
REPORTER: So anything you’ve said before, if you’ve said it just forget about it?
KIRK: As I stated before in the speech…
REPORTER: Do you have a record that will show where the question came up?
KIRK: So the record talks about the…just go through the detail…and especially my officer fitness report from my Afghan service…
REPORTER: Do you think your campaign- are you going to stop using photos that imply you’re a pilot? There are pictures of you sitting in a plane with pilot gear on. Are you guys going to stop using those or…
KIRK: They don’t…there is no issue because there…on many aircraft you have aircrew, and often times, in fact most of the people on the squad- in my squadron that I served in are not pilots. There are three other people on the aircraft who flew along.
Officer fitness reports do not represent Kirk’s full military record and he knows it.
* And these dodges aren’t just confined to his military record. As Lynn Sweet reports, he won’t talk about a lot of things. Remember, for instance, how he said he would “lead the effort” to repeal the national health care bill earlier this year? Kirk’s quote from mid-March…
“I’m Mark Kirk and I can’t wait to vote against the health care bill next week,” he told the crowd at the Friday evening dinner. […]
“There is one thing about the bill not commonly known: All of the pain of the bill is upfront and all of the gain is later. What do I mean? The bill includes 10 new federal taxes, and dramatic cuts for senior health care under Medicare between 2010 and 2014,” Kirk said. “The actual benefit of the bill doesn’t start until 2014. In between this time and then, is a presidential election. If we can win in the White House — and we’re on the way to making this guy a one termer — then if we move to repeal this bill in 2013, all you’re doing is removing the pain and not a single American would have benefited from it yet. And so, as your senator, I would lead the effort, if it passes, to repeal this bill.”
As of July 1, a discharge petition–the first step needed to get the matter back before the House– by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) has 109 signers. The group includes Illinois House Republicans Judy Biggert, Peter Roskam, Don Manzullo and John Shimkus.
Last week Kirk said he had yet to study the repeal matter fully but since it was law, he wanted to make sure the regulations were written to the advantage of Illinois. On Tuesday Kirk told me, “I haven’t got back to that, I haven’t read it yet.”
* Related…
* Brown: By goosing foe, Kirk pinches his ticket mate, too
* A Tangled Bipartisan Web of Tax Criticism
* Kirk still mulling Kagan, Obama health care repeal; stumping in Collinsville, Quincy, Springfield
* Axelrod raising money for Giannoulias
* Axelrod To Illinois For Giannoulias
posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 11:26 am
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Poor Kirk, those reporters have been mean to him so now he’s not going to say anything at all.
Comment by Small Town Liberal Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 11:37 am
But he’s not Alexi. This year that’s all it takes.
Comment by Belle Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 11:38 am
Kirk is driving me nuts. I absolutely hated it when he was spending weeks hemming and hawing over which race he was going to get into. He is back to hemming and hawing. We already have Dick Durbin, and he is good enough not to appear hemming and hawing while he hems and haws.
It seems the only thing Kirk says is stuff to impress strangers with. He doesn’t really seem to stand for anything. He is showing us how a Republican could have represented a liberal congressional district for all these years. He has done it by not taking any stands for which he needs to answer.
I am so not impressed with him. The moment he got hit in this campaign, he went into a fetal position and went right back to his congressional compromise babbling. He folds like a house of cards. Mark Kirk is so unsure of who he is, or what he said he was, he is unable to answer questions during this campaign.
I voted for Hoffman. I am open to either candidates at this time. I want to like Kirk, but his behavior is so embarrassing. He is not acting like a man, but as a spineless politician.
Comment by VanillaMan Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 11:47 am
I hate that I have to choose between these two bad choices. I was all ready to cross party lines and vote for Kirk until he turned out to have honesty issues. Now I might just write in a person since I don’t feel right casting a vote for either of them.
Comment by CC Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 11:48 am
The thing is, Giannoulias can do a lot less harm as one of 100 Senators than he can do in a statewide office. I’m not fond of him, but he’s getting my vote because we can’t send Kirk to DC. He’ll think lying to us is fine with us.
Comment by Cheryl44 Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 11:51 am
Honestly that is smart strategy. Keep the issue out of the papers by referring to military documented records. In this manner it is less likely anything is twisted and the issue dwindles.
I think this is pretty sound advice on the topic.
Comment by A.B. Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 12:02 pm
Kirk’s behavior is leaning toward my opinion of Blago… sociopath. If we elect this dude, we should just expect garbage. I don’t like Alexi, but I don’t think he is nutty. I will probably vote for a democrat for the first time ever. I backed up Kirk for a long time, but he finally crossed the line.
Comment by Heartless Libertarian Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 12:02 pm
Kirk has misrepresented himself for years as a moderate and a lot of other things. If you want to see the face of single-minded pursuit of power, his is it. It’s unfortunate that David Hoffman had to wait so long to decide to run, too long to have time to catch up in the primary, because he would have already crushed Kirk. As it is we’re just going to have to wait until November to find out whether we’ve avoided the fate of having this second rate megalomaniac use one of Illinois’ senate seats to provide cover for Mitch McConnell and pad his own thinner-than-we-thought resume.
Comment by Angry Chicagoan Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 12:04 pm
It is not “careless” when all the mistakes go towards inflating the record.
And when you choose words like “careless” with regard to regularly inflating your resume, you are not “contrite.” In fact, a better phrase might be “deceptive and unwilling to own up to the errors made.”
Comment by Skeeter Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 12:07 pm
The fitness reports are the outlines of how well he did his job-which is not in dispute, not WHAT he did in his job-which is. Thankfully the media is largely not smart enough to get that. It’s like saying I got an A in a class when asked whether you wrote a 330 page senior thesis or a 30 page thesis for the grade. The media wants to know whether he wrote the 330 page thesis and he’s playing off their stupidity by saying I got an A so bite me.
Comment by shore Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 12:27 pm
I am also not sure if the Dutch were in kandahar, most of the european countries were deployed in areas that were safe and where not much of the fighting has been done lately.
Comment by shore Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 12:31 pm
VM says, “He doesn’t really seem to stand for anything. He is showing us how a Republican could have represented a liberal congressional district for all these years. He has done it by not taking any stands for which he needs to answer.”
Welcome to the 10th District.
Of course, Kirk needed an utterly vacuous and complicit local media to help him pull it off. Again, I refer you to the Trib’s former 10th CD reporter Suzi Kuczka who is now on Kirk’s campaign PR staff as just one example of the media’s bias favoring Kirk for the past decade.
The Herald, Tribune and others have all literally changed articles about Mark Kirk and his opponents to make them more beneficial to Kirk.
Comment by Rob_N Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 12:31 pm
Kirk is messing up this Alexi tax issue in the same way he messed up his resume.
It would have been enough to let the media pile on Alexi on the fact that he paid no taxes. But Kirk can’t leave well enough alone. He had to say something about it and ending trashing his ticketmakes Brady and Plummer in the process. Now the Brady/Plummer angle is the story, not Alexi.
Like his resume puffing, Kirk should learn to understand that sometimes its ok, even in politics, to say nothing at all.
Comment by Verdicto Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 12:37 pm
Kirk: “I did not have factual relations with that story”
I think his appology was psot on, but he would hav garnered big points if he had said to the reporter that he was telling a bit of an embelished war story as he had done on occasion in the past for a little spice or variety or self deprecation or whatever.
Honesty really is the best Policy.
Comment by Ghost Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 12:55 pm
I am glad to see at least one editorial in favor of the new bicycle law. The comments to the signing story on the Trib and Daily Herald websites were rife with people who seem to think that bicyclists are a lower form of life than used car salesmen. But seriously, does anyone really think that motorists or anyone else, ought to be able to crowd, hit, or throw things at bicyclists with impunity?
Text of the law is here:
http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/96/SB/09600SB2951.htm
http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/96/SB/09600SB2951.htm
Comment by Dr Kilovolt Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 12:55 pm
Oops, I meant to post that in “the best stuff is at the bottom” comments.
Comment by Dr Kilovolt Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 12:57 pm
Kirk must have a strong, used car sales gene floating in his system. The mouth and brain seem to be battling over control to close a deal.
Comment by zatoichi Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 1:06 pm
Regarding the comment about bikes — I would have a lot more sympathy for them when so many of them stop acting like spoiled children.
Unless you are under 10 years old, do not ride a bicycle on the sidewalk. I’m tired of these “adults” riding down downtown and Streeterville sidewalks. Not to mention swerving all over the road. There may be no bigger group of idiots in the area.
Comment by Skeeter Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 1:07 pm
Still no coverage of the lies Alexi has told regarding his charity. Has Alexi filled out his ethics disclosure that is two months late.
Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 1:10 pm
===Still no coverage of the lies Alexi has told regarding his charity. ====
We did that weeks ago, dimwit.
Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 1:13 pm
Shore, it was only the Germans that tried to lay low in the North (and then they hosed that up). The Dutch and Canadians tried to do what they could in the South when they had command there.
Let us keep focused, shall we?
Comment by al-Iskandariya Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 1:13 pm
===
Honestly that is smart strategy….
===
Yeah, so how’s that “hopey changey” thing working out for the Kirk campaign?
Comment by The REAL Anonymous fka Anonymous Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 1:26 pm
=Has Alexi filled out his ethics disclosure that is two months late. =
One of the interesting patterns I think I’m beginning to note, is the difficulty some people have in identifying an “apple” and an “orange”–and consistently trying to compare the two as if that should mean something to everyone else–OR even better yet, serve as an effective distraction.
You do know that many would probably consider your attempts at the latter in such cases as EXTREMELY insulting, right–and the only purpose that would serve is making you look “silly”?
Comment by The REAL Anonymous fka Anonymous Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 1:38 pm
Sorry. “Silly” is the wrong word. Someone used “petty” yesterday. That’s much more appropriate.
Comment by The REAL Anonymous fka Anonymous Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 1:41 pm
Here’s a hint:
“tch tch tch tch tch.”
He’s done it before. And he can certainly do it again.
Comment by The REAL Anonymous fka Anonymous Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 1:46 pm
rob-n, in the morning kirk’s a bush insider, at lunch he’s a stand for nothing moderate, at dinner he’s a flip flopper, perhaps Illinois democrats should have a conversation with themselves and try to get down to 2 lines of attacks because what you’ve said for a decade hasn’t really worked beyond your blogs and glencoe/wilmette/evanston dean for america house parties.
What’s not been discussed here, is that when you watch the press conference you see the congressman break down the issues, note experts and explain his thinking on a range of policies. You don’t get that with alexi, not even close and it shows the difference in depth of the candidates. With Alexi you hear cable news talking points and the sort of shallow understanding of issues you’d expect from someone whose brief mediocre career was built not on their understanding of issues but the family money they inherited.
Comment by shore Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 2:14 pm
Shore which plicy discussions o Kirk are you lauding?
His suppot of rilling for oil in the gulf whil opposing it in lake michigan? his support for cap and trade while saying he is opposed?
Kirks policy discussions, like his resume, embelish and change with every telling. His policy chops ae that he supports all policies, depending on his audience…. which were developed while he was underfire by dutch candy makers while he was trying to portect his school children from attacks by the locals.
Comment by Ghost Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 2:34 pm
“…getting shot at and being calm, cool and collected.”
True or not, who in the world talks about himself like that?
Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 2:46 pm
Can’t help wondering when the MSM will pick up on Kirk’s own little tax skeleton: the property taxes on his Ft. Sheridan home. Ellenofthetenth covered it today, and pointed to a 2008 Progress Illinois story about it. Seems Kirk pays about $800 a year on property that fully assessed would cost him closer to $4000 or more. If he is really so hot about politicians paying what is fair instead of what is owed, then why doesn’t he donate the difference to the local school district?
Comment by Dr Kilovolt Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 2:52 pm
If he keeps running ads with him in a full flight suit for a jet, he’s gonna get his butt chewed by the media. The images include him in a plane (F-18, maybe) that has nothing to do with his intel duties and they all look a lot more recent than his last fly-along in 2001. This, the prior embellishments, the Dutch armor incident, it’s all of a piece - what he did (sitting in an office style compound doing intel) just wasn’t sexy enough in his own mind for whatever reason.
Comment by Berkeley Bear Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 3:22 pm
Kirk is a Pathological liar, a mythomaniac.
Carol Marin may want to change the subject on Kirk’s lying but Kirk has spent the last ten years in the public lying, it won’t go away, there is more to come.
Comment by (618) Democrat Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 3:30 pm
Well he’s in a Dutch now … That was a saying of my great grandmother’s. Talk about old school.
Comment by P. Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 3:31 pm
Both candidates are bad and ought to withdraw from the race. Furthermore:
Kirk’s “mistakes” defense is baloney. He is liar.
Kirk has Stolen Valor from those who truly earned it.
Kirk deserves nobody’s vote for nothing. Kirk should leave public office now.
Comment by x ace Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 3:34 pm
- True or not, who in the world talks about himself like that? -
Hah, good point. He comes off like Ron Burgandy.
Comment by Small Town Liberal Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 3:43 pm
I hate to go tit for tat but Alexi has given FOUR (4) different answers to the Trib and ST editoral boards about knowing, meeting, befriending, etc Michael Gengreco (sp). This was the twice convicted felon who got about 20 million in loans and needed his wife to sign the papers since he was in jail at the time.
Seriously. So is Lynn Sweet (on Giannoulias) or Carol Marin going to hammer away at him?
Comment by banana Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 7:04 pm
Why continue voting for candidates and parties that continue to disregard the will of the people and are destroying our country?
Me, personally, I’ve had enough. Mike Labno has my vote this November.
Comment by Fed Up With the Status Quo Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 10:35 pm