Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) called Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) “unhinged” after the senator referred to President Obama as the “drug dealer in chief,” Politico reports.
Said Duckworth: “If you look at all of the things that he said, I think that he lacks the ability to control what he’s saying. If you look at the numerous gaffes he’s had over the years,” Duckworth said Tuesday after she addressed the City Club of Chicago. “I do think he is unhinged.”
Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) plans to write in Colin Powell’s name for president on his general election ballot this November, Politico reports.
Sen. Mark Kirk’s (R-IL) new ad could easily be mistaken for one run by a Democrat.
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Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) issued a statement saying he would not back his party’s nominee for president:
I have spent my life building bridges and tearing down barriers–not building walls. That’s why I find Donald Trump’s belief that an American-born judge of Mexican descent is incapable of fairly presiding over his case is not only dead wrong, it is un-American…
It is absolutely essential that we are guided by a commander-in-chief with a responsible and proper temperament, discretion and judgment. Our President must be fit to command the most powerful military the world has ever seen, including an arsenal of thousands of nuclear weapons. After much consideration, I have concluded that Donald Trump has not demonstrated the temperament necessary to assume the greatest office in the world.
RealClearPolitics: “Republican outside groups have spent tens of millions of dollars in competitive Senate races this year, eager to protect GOP incumbents in a difficult cycle with the chamber’s majority up for grabs. But as that spending has ramped up in recent weeks, next to none has gone to bolster Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk, widely viewed as the most vulnerable of them all.”
Sen. Mark Kirk is on audio defending indicted Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) while accusing President Obama of targeting Menendez because of his stance on Iran, Politico reports.
Said Kirk: “And let me say something about Bob Menendez. I believe that Bob Menendez was indicted solely on the crime of opposing the President on Iran.”
Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) “is the target of an ethics complaint over supposedly having his office redecorated for free by the same designer who worked on” disgraced former Rep. Aaron Schock’s (R-IL) “Downton Abbey”-themed office, WBGZ reports.
Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL), “who has needed help with some everyday tasks such as preparing meals and physically getting around since suffering a debilitating stroke in 2012, put his live-in caregiver onto his campaign payroll,” the Chicago Tribune reports.
“Kirk’s placement of his caregiver — who had no prior campaign experience — onto his campaign staff raises questions about whether Kirk used political donations to pay for personal expenses. Campaign finance records show that Kirk for Senate had paid his caregiver a salary totaling more than $43,000 from August 2013 through the end of 2014.”
“Federal law says campaign funds cannot be used for expenses that would occur regardless of whether the person were running for or holding office.”
“One of the Illinois GOP’s premiere fundraisers has called on U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., to abandon his re-election race, saying it likely is unwinnable. The statement is spurring a flurry of phone calls and activity among worried Republicans,” according to Crain’s Chicago Business.
Said Ron Gidwidz: “His misstatements put him and the Illinois Republican Party in too much of a defensive position. I do not believe he will be a U.S. senator in 2017 and, as top of the ticket, he could cause collateral damage (to other Republican candidates). I call on him to step aside and allow other Republicans to seek his seat.”
The Southern Illinoisan eviscerates Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) in an editorial:
“Mark Kirk suddenly has more in common with your unhinged uncle than a deliberative member of the U.S. Senate… Illinoisans thought they elected a center-right fiscal conservative. They instead got the love child of Michele Bachmann and Ted Cruz, a man more concerned with making a name within his party’s fringe than representing his constituents.”
“This agreement condemns the next generation to cleaning up a nuclear war in the Persian Gulf… This is the greatest appeasement since Chamberlain gave Czechoslovakia to Hitler.”
— Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL), quoted by BuzzFeed, on the nuclear deal reached with Iran.
Four days after touching off a firestorm of criticism by describing a fellow senator as a “bro with no ho,” Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) apologized in a brief statement issued by his office, the Chicago Tribune reports.
Said Kirk: “I apologize to the people of Illinois for my inappropriate remarks last week.”
Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), who is challenging Kirk for Senate, told the Chicago Sun Times: “I think every woman in Illinois needs to hear an apology from Senator Kirk personally.”
Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) was caught on a live microphone saying Republican presidential hopeful Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who is unmarried, is a “bro with no ho,” the Chicago Tribune reports.
Said Kirk: “I’ve been joking with Lindsey. He’s a bro with no ho. That’s what we’d say on the South Side.”
Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) is already running cable advertisements for his re-election campaign, according to Capitol Fax.
After some unfortunate remarks earlier this week, Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) told the Chicago Sun-Times he won’t be talking about race or ethnicity in the future.
Said Kirk: “I would say that whenever a targeted member talks about race or ethnicity, it is impossible for him to get it right. So I’ll leave it at that.”
Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IK) told the Peoria Journal Star that his constituents try to avoid African-American neighborhoods.
Said Kirk: “I want to make sure we have elected people constantly looking at helping the African-American community. With this state and all of its resources, we could sponsor a whole new class of potential innovators like George Washington Carver and eventually have a class of African-American billionaires. That would really adjust income differentials and make the diversity and outcome of the state much better so that the black community is not the one we drive faster through.”
Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) will announce a 2016 Senate bid likely on Monday, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
“She is aiming to win the Democratic nomination to run against Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill.
Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) suggested that Chicago could go the way of financially strapped Detroit if voters fail to reelect Rahm Emanuel (D), USA Today reports.
Said Kirk: “The people who are running against Rahm don’t have the gravitas with the bond market. I would worry about the value of the Chicago debt if Rahm was not re-elected.”
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Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.