The other two trophies are the Nevada seat currently held by Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Delaware seat formerly held by Vice Pres. Biden. While Biden’s seat will likely flip to liberal GOP Rep. Mike Castle (one of the first Republican pols to be shouted down by tea baggers at town hall meetings last summer), Reid’s 12 Republican opponents, including “chicken woman” Sue Lowden, seem to be imploding one by one.
Kirk has held a single digit lead over Democrat Alexi Giannoulias in early polling. But even before he was outed yesterday by Mike Rogers, editor of BlogActive in Washington, D.C., the Kirk campaign was reeling from the revelation that Kirk, who is an officer in the Naval reserves, has claimed on more than one occasion to have received a commendation that in fact he’d never been awarded.
Update: Today Kirk’s campaign has acknowledged another misstatement about his service. A bio erroneously stated that Kirk served in Operation Iraqi Freedom. In fact, Kirk was serving in the United States at the time, so he actually served during, not in the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
In preparing his article on Kirk, Mike Rogers interviewed friends of Kirk’s from college who said he was known then to be gay, as well as two men who said they had sex with Kirk in the past. In separate interviews, both men knew details about Kirk’s private anatomy that appeared to confirm they had intimate relations with him, according to Rogers.
In the article, Rogers wrote that Kirk casually revealed his interest in dating men to Rogers personally, at a fundraising event in 2004. Rogers said he’d kept quiet about Kirk’s sexuality until now because Kirk’s voting record on gay rights was “more impressive than a lot of Democrats.”
Rogers changed his mind, however, when Kirk, who holds the rank of commander in the Naval Reserve, voted against the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” last week:
Within hours of the DADT repeal vote I was contacted by two people who knew Kirk from his college days.
“In law school in DC everyone knew Mark was gay,” the first source told me. I explained that the information was intriguing, it would not be enough to go on. He continued, “But I had sex with him a number of times.” Well, now we’re onto something I thought. “Could someone verify for me that you knew Kirk and went to school with him?” I asked. “Yes” was the swift reply. “Could you recall personal details about Kirk that others may not know?” “Yes,” he said.
And he did.
The next source claimed to have gone to undergraduate school with Kirk … The source introduced me to a man who had also been friends with Kirk in college. They both shared with me their interactions with Kirk, including one sexual in nature. The source who claimed to have sex with Kirk described personal details about the House, um, er, “member.” The description was the same as the first source.
And in DC, Kirk wasn’t all THAT closeted. You see Mark Kirk told me he was gay … It was early 2004 when I was at a social gathering on Capitol Hill. I’m guessing there were 35-40 people present, including the guy who brought me as his guest … It was at that party that I met Mark Kirk. I was introduced to him by the person I came with and at the time did not realize he was a member of the House. As my friend walked away, Kirk asked me if the man who introduced us was “single or attached.” When I said that he had a partner, Kirk replied disappointingly, “oh, well.” At the end of that interaction I walked away and didn’t think much of it at the time.
During the Republican primary in the Illinois Senate race, one of Kirk’s three tea bagger opponents accused Kirk in a radio ad of hiding his homosexuality:
Today I am fighting for the facts about Mark Kirk. Illinois Republican leader Jack Roeser says there is a solid rumor that Kirk is a homosexual. Roeser suggests that Kirk is part of a Republican Party homosexual club. Lake County Illinois Republican leader Ray True says Kirk has surrounded himself with homosexuals. Mark Kirk should tell Republican voters the truth.
Under DADT guidelines, rumors are enough to trigger an investigation. To ensure that the rules are applied fairly, the Pentagon should launch an investigation into Kirk as soon as possible, and, in light of his vote to retain DADT, he should be expelled from service right away.
Well, well, when it rains it $hitstorms, eh Marky?
Yes, Nikolai, it certainly does, and one of the purest forms of hypocrisy I’ve seen recently is Senator Hatch’s bill that makes it a crime for a politician to lie about his/her military record that only applies to democrats. Hatch was specifically asked if his bill applied to Kirk, and his response was, “No, it doesn’t. It’s not difficult to see that Blumenthal was the target.