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Both major candidates for U.S. Senate in Illinois are using their military backgrounds to bolster their campaigns, but they each have embellished their account of where they were and who they were with when terrorists attacked on 9/11.

For Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, it was his suggestion he was with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld when the Cabinet member learned a second plane had struck in New York and those in the room came to the realization that America was under attack.

But Rumsfeld learned of the second attack on the World Trade Center during a different meeting.

For Democratic challenger U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth, it was her suggestion she was at Midway Airport readying to defend Chicago with a Black Hawk helicopter unit.

But Duckworth was in Scotland on vacation.

Go read the whole thing if you have the stomach for it. I think the problem for Kirk is slightly less than Duckworth’s, but, really, this is all too much.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 11:02 am

Comments

I am really, really looking forward to the polls opening so in multiple races I can vote for the horrible candidate of my choice.

Comment by Ron Burgundy Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 11:06 am
Kirk is off by a few minutes.

Duckworth is off by a continent.

Comment by Cousin Vinny Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 11:07 am
This Senate race has become as distasteful as our last Gubernatorial race.

Comment by Cubs in '16 Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 11:09 am
What a festering dumpster fire…it’s only gonna get worse

Comment by Curious Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 11:11 am
C’mon, Tammy.

Comment by AlfondoGonz Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 11:14 am
Duckworth is channeling her inner dude:

“The Royal “we”! You know, the editorial…”

Comment by 47th Ward Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 11:14 am
Really Tammy?

Comment by Peoria Guy Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 11:18 am
Dear politicians,

We have the Google.

Sincerely,
Everyone

Comment by Ducky LaMoore Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 11:18 am
“Kirk is off by a few minutes.

Duckworth is off by a continent.”

LOL

Comment by Clark Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 11:20 am
@Ducky LaMoore

Well played. Can I vote for you for the Senate instead?

Comment by Chicago_Downstater Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 11:24 am
Duckworth thinks she has to embellish her service record? Very weird.

Kirk thinks proximity to Rumsfeld, ever, is a positive? Very strange.

Comment by wordslnger Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 11:27 am
Hey, SOMEBODY had to make sure that the Loch Ness Monster (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loch_Ness_Monster) didn’t become an ally of Osama Bin Laden.

Must have worked. You didn’t see Nessie throwing in with OBL.

Comment by Judgment Day Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 11:28 am
=== Kirk is off by a few minutes.

Duckworth is off by a continent. ===

Genius.

Comment by Just Observing Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 11:29 am
I think “None of the Above” should be an option and if it gets a plurality, we should get to vote on different people.

Comment by Ahoy! Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 11:33 am
“Kirk is off by a few minutes.

Duckworth is off by a continent”

I’m dying.

Comment by Terrible Towel Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 11:35 am
I thought both of them were with Brian Williams on 9/11?

Comment by Hank Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 11:35 am
@Chicao_Downstater

If you want I guess. I was just going to vote for the third party candidate who had the name I liked best.

Comment by Ducky LaMoore Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 11:36 am
All the wise guys seem to be ignoring the fact that Duckworth was, in fact, in command of the unit at Midway. Being in Scotland didn’t change that.

Comment by JackD Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 11:42 am
It’s sad because the mud that’s flying is actually beneath each of them.

Comment by Politix Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 11:42 am
Whoever is the first to tell us what they’ve done in office for us, consequently earning our votes - wins.

I’m not holding my breath.

Comment by VanillaMan Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 11:45 am
== I think “None of the Above” should be an option and if it gets a plurality, we should get to vote on different people. ==

I agree. Can we get Illinois to make this a constitutional amendment at the State level and propose it at the Federal level?

Comment by RNUG Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 11:49 am
They can’t help themselves I guess.

They are continually embarrassing themselves.

Please stop “this”. Both of you.

Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 11:50 am
Why couldn’t Duckworth just tell us that Scotland was under attack, needing her to be there on 911?

That way Kirk could tell us he was in a helicopter piloted by Sean Connery and leading Duckworth into battle?

I’m voting for the one that tells me they were secretly filming Ron Sandack.

Comment by VanillaMan Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 11:53 am
This race is pathetic. How does the campaign apparatuses for these candidates keep allowing this buffoonery to happen.

Comment by Anonymouth Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 11:54 am
Anyone who thinks that a military commander in Tammy Duckworth’s position would be uninvolved with 9/11 because he/she was out of the country probably has no military experience.

Comment by JackD Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 12:00 pm
FFS.

–MrJM

Comment by MisterJayEm Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 12:01 pm
Anyone who thinks that a military commander in Tammy Duckworth’s position would be uninvolved with 9/11 because he/she was out of the country probably has no military experience. Vanilla Man’s comment is probably snark but it’s uniformed snark.

Comment by JackD Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 12:01 pm
Sure she may have been actively involved with her unit, BUT she didn’t mention Scotland. She left the impression that she was at Midway with her unit when she in fact was not.

Her fib on this issue is worse than Kirk’s but he has a history of this sort of thing that this gets added to.

Comment by Ron Burgundy Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 12:02 pm
Kirk at the Pentagon in an acknowledged meeting with Defense Sec. Donald Rumsfeld on the morning of 9/11. Tammy backpacking with family in Scotland on 9/11. Kirk was clearly just a little bit closer to the action and danger–especially considering that the Pentagon was actually hit. In the sad ongoing contest to determine which of you most skates around the truth, I’m afraid you have handily won the not- to- be- coveted “military participation embellishment trophy” for that particular earth shattering day, Tammy.

Comment by Responsa Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 12:06 pm
@Ducky LaMoore wins today.

Comment by Team America Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 12:09 pm
@JackD

No one is saying she was uninvolved over there. It’s the fact she said she was AT MIDWAY at the time, which clearly, is not true.

Comment by Clark Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 12:15 pm
Not all veterans are qualified to be a United States Senator. These two are competing for least qualified.

Comment by Last Bull Moose Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 12:23 pm
This is comical on so many levels. Only way this gets better is they send out dueling press releases

Comment by Almost the Weekend Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 12:29 pm
==This is comical on so many levels.==

Yes. It almost reads like a snarky side plot on The West Wing.

Comment by Responsa Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 12:36 pm
-This is comical on so many levels. Only way this gets better is they send out dueling press releases-

Or another angry vet commercial that cuts to the sound of bagpipes…

Comment by Ron Burgundy Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 12:47 pm
The part I do not understand, is it seems all Cong. Duckworth has to do is NOT screw up and she wins. Why would she try so hard to mess this up?

Comment by Downstate GOP Faithless Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 12:48 pm
Thanks to Duckworth, Scotland was safe on 911.

Comment by VanillaMan Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 12:53 pm
How could both parties have had such horrible candidates for this position? Ahhhh, for the days of Senator Paul Simon, Everett Dirksen, Charles Percy, Adlai Stevenson III and Paul Douglas.

Comment by HRC2016 Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 12:57 pm
Clark; you don’t like the fact she used “we” and meant the unit? OK and all of this bears on who’d be the better senator, how? Frankly, I think the whole “controversy” as to both of them is frivolous.

Comment by JackD Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 1:01 pm
This is what she said Monday from the article, in relevant part… “I was in command of the Black Hawk unit at Midway on 9/11,” she said. “I was in command of the only military aviation asset in the Chicagoland area. …we were the only military aviation here. And I was there on that day, I’ve been there every single day since and I will be there well into the future.”

Now in context that “I was there on that day” seems to say she was there in a metaphysical sense, or in spirit, I guess, but it could also leave a different impression. Still, here we have two highly ambitious people who couldn’t just say they watched and were horrified like the rest of us instead of inflating their roles in one of the worst days of our history.

Comment by Ron Burgundy Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 1:09 pm
===instead of inflating their roles===

Yep.

The only “heroic” thing I did that day was I didn’t leave downtown Chicago. I lived there, so those @*%&#$s weren’t gonna make me leave my apartment. Admittedly thin soup, but I went out in the late afternoon and barely saw another soul, except a couple of Middle Eastern-looking guys shooting video of my building from their car.

Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 1:15 pm
Their campaign communications staff are out of control. Somebody needs to act like a winner.

Comment by walker Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 1:16 pm
That does it. I’m writing-in Gen. Petraeus for U.S. Senate. No: Make that Colin Powell. Wait - Petraeus!

Comment by Linus Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 1:34 pm
=== I went out in the late afternoon and barely saw another soul, except a couple of Middle Eastern-looking guys shooting video of my building from their car.===

Yikes, that had to be a bit scary!

Comment by Cubs in '16 Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 1:38 pm
I was at Ft Sill picking up one my soldiers from the hospital. My unit was immediately tasked to secure the road entrances to post. All the soldiers were issued weapons, as the Gate NCO i was the only one issued ammunition. I think I will write my name on the ballot. So I will be the write in on two races. President or Congressman, either slot will be ok with me.

Comment by FormerParatrooper Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 1:47 pm
Linus wins.

Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 1:48 pm
The insane part, it doesn’t make a lickspittle bit of difference to anyone where these clowns were at when the towers were hit.

This Senate race is Exhibit A on why we need a system where we can vote for “none of the above” and have it actually count, i.e., if a sufficient number of voters demand a do-over, no one wins and we start over again with different candidates. These two might deserve each other, but voters definitely deserve better.

Comment by Alexander Hamilton Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 1:55 pm
And I was in charge of the 50 cal battery on top of the Hilton in Springfield……

Comment by A Jack Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 2:41 pm
Lord help us. This from the state that produced Ev Dirksen and Paul Douglas.

Are the benches for both parties in our state this thin? Or do the best and brightest pols in our state just nothing to do with Washington?

Why can’t it be Tom Dart vs. Matt Murphy, or Kwame Raoul vs. Pam Althoff?

Comment by Anon poster Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 2:43 pm
The only thing uplifting because of this race is my lunch.

Comment by Ron Burgundy Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 4:27 pm
If I were one of their top tier donors, I’d ask for a refund

Comment by shytown Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 4:28 pm
As vicious as politics is today, does it really surprise anyone that the good people want to have no part of running for office? What decent person wants to raise money, work 24/7, leave one’s job, release one’s tax returns, and take constant abuse?

Comment by Formerpol Friday, Sep 23, 16 @ 4:39 pm