A DISAPPOINTMENT – AT 7:43 P.M. ET:  Ah, the fortunes of politics.  I went into this political season so enthusiastic about the candidacy of Republican Congressman Mark Kirk of Illinois, running for the Senate seat formerly held by retired public servant Barack Obama. 

Kirk has been doing well in the polls in this normally Democratic state.  But it was recently revealed that he misstated his military-service record.  We came down on him for that.  Now it turns out that this was one of a number of misstatements.  How sad, how sad: 

CHICAGO (AP) -- Senate candidate Mark Kirk apologized Thursday for making inaccurate statements about his service in the Navy Reserves, while acknowledging more discrepancies.

''I apologize to everyone for these errors,'' the Illinois Republican said. ''They were my responsibility entirely and I will fix them.''

The five-time U.S. representative, who is competing with Democrat Alexi Giannoulias for the Senate seat once held by President Barack Obama, also acknowledged new incidents where public statements didn't match reality about his service.

Kirk said a letter sent by his congressional district office last year described him as a veteran of Operation Desert Storm, the first Persian Gulf war, but he did not participate in that operation.

Kirk later flew over Iraq for intelligence reconnaissance missions in 2000. He said Thursday he does not recall coming under enemy fire on those flights and added it was sometimes hard to tell whether his plane was being targeted.

But C-SPAN video shows Kirk on the House floor saying he was fired upon.

''The last time I was in Iraq I was in uniform flying at 20,000 feet, and the Iraqi air defense network was shooting at us,'' Kirk said in the undated video, which was posted online by the Giannoulias campaign.

Kirk also said last year that he once saw anti-aircraft flack when flying an intelligence mission over Kosovo and thought he might be killed.

COMMENT:  Well, what do we do now?  We know there'll be a double standard.  Connecticut Democratic Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, also a Senate candidate, was recently caught lying about his own military record.  He has since recovered in the polls, despite his outrageous claim that he'd been in Vietnam during the war, when in fact he hadn't been.  But Blumey is a Democrat, and the lying didn't seem to bother his party, which is too "sophisticated" to worry about stuff like this.

But Kirk is a Republican, a member of a party that reveres military service.  Do we accept his apology, or ask him to withdraw?  What do you think?  I'd love to hear from readers.

June 4, 2010