Kirk's embellishments let foe wriggle back into race

Kirk's embellishments let foe wriggle back into race
By John Kass
Copyright © 2010, Chicago Tribune
1:48 a.m. CDT, June 4, 2010
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-met-kass-0604-kirk-20100603,0,6662848,full.column


Watching Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kirk squirm before the Tribune editorial board on Thursday for embellishing his military record reminded me of something:

Watching Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias squirm in the same chair a few months ago, for his role in his family's controversial and now failed Broadway Bank.

So now both candidates in the race for President Barack Obama's old Senate seat have problems.

On Thursday it was Kirk, a U.S. Naval Reserve officer, doing the wriggling, and it wasn't pretty.

He kept a stony face and carefully parsed his answers. After an hour or so, members of the editorial board and other questioners, such as me, finally got an "I'm sorry" out of him. But even though he maintained a military resolve, it was agonizing.

It looked as if there were about a hundred angry meerkats roiling around inside him, just under the skin, trying to escape.

So I asked him: Haven't you embellished your service?

"I didn't need to," Kirk said, prattling on about having to be more "precise" with his language, but he didn't answer the question.

A few others asked him the same thing about the embellishing. He didn't answer them either.

If you've been following Illinois' Senate campaign, you know that Kirk basically Blumenthaled himself.

Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat who is Connecticut's attorney general, is campaigning to replace outgoing Sen. Chris Dodd. Blumenthal had a penchant for bragging about his combat service in Vietnam. Trouble was, he'd sought a series of deferments and served stateside in the U.S. Marine Corps. He never got close to combat.

Kirk's embellishments weren't totally Blumenthalish. He joined the Naval Reserve in 1989 and for the last decade has served in the military without pay, due to a federal law denying military pay to members of Congress.

But his embellishment troubles center around his claiming he'd won a naval intelligence officer of the year award. Turns out, it was a different award, and Kirk didn't win it by himself. Instead, the award belonged to his unit.

Other issues arose. His campaign bio claimed he served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, which wasn't true. A letter sent by his office to constituents last year stated he served in Operation Desert Storm, which also was untrue. Instead, he served in Operation Northern Watch, enforcing the no-fly zone over parts of Iraq.

And there was the question as to whether he'd actually been under fire while in a jet during Northern Watch. He previously claimed he had; on Thursday, he said he couldn't be sure but assumed so.

Then there was the matter of Kirk bragging that he'd been in "command" of the Pentagon's war room. Kirk said he meant to say he was briefly in command of the intelligence section in the war room, and regretted his imprecise comments.

"Oftentimes, talking to a civilian audience, you try to translate from Pentagonese into Civilian," Kirk said. "Given the precision with which you need to describe your record, I feel that moving forward, I should refer to, solely, the military terms and the documented record."

He may not want to translate from Pentagonese into Civilian, but how about translating it into a language every Illinois taxpayer understands: Chumbolonese.

And here's what it means:

"Jeepers! I just Blumenthaled my pinky toe right off my foot. I do hope it grows back, and in the meantime I'll be referring only to the official record, my military fitness reports."

Getting caught embellishing a military record is not good form, especially for Republicans. Democrats don't seem to care much about such issues, at least in Connecticut.

Blumenthal — who is king of all embellishers — is leading his Republican challenger in Connecticut by 23 points, according to a new Rasmussen poll this week. A guy who repeatedly lies about combat service is leading any campaign?

Kirk admits his mistakes.

"It's my fault," said Kirk. "When you're in an environment like this, every word will be parsed. And the safest, best place to be is the documented military record."

This might go away. But just a few weeks ago, he was sailing past Giannoulias, who looked politically dead.

That was after the Tribune reported that Giannoulias — as a senior loan officer for his family bank — approved millions of dollars in loans to Chicago Outfit-connected businessmen.

The tough guys put some of the bank's money back out on the street themselves, in what amounted to legal juice loans.

Even in Illinois it might be tough to ask voters to put you in the Senate — to recommend federal judges and prosecutors — while you're a proven enabler of legal juice loans.

The assumption that Giannoulias' campaign tipped The Washington Post about the Kirk embellishment is a mitigating factor to some. But I don't think voters care about how the story gets out.

Voters care about what the story says, and how a candidate reacts to it.

Kirk reacted to it all by saying it was his responsibility, and that it shouldn't have happened. But he wouldn't admit to embellishing his record for his political benefit. He apologized for not speaking with "utter precision."

"I am sorry," he said at the end of the tortured hour.

I'm sure he is sorry indeed. He just let Alexi Giannoulias sail right back into the campaign.

jskass@tribune.com