OH, NO, NO – AT 10:51 P.M. ET:  A major setback for the Republican Party.  No question about it.  From the Washington Post:

The Republican candidate for President Obama's old Senate seat has admitted to inaccurately claiming he received the U.S. Navy's Intelligence Officer of the Year award for his service during NATO's conflict with Serbia in the late 1990s.

Rep. Mark Kirk, a Navy reservist who was elected to Congress in 2001, acknowledged the error in his official biography after The Washington Post began looking into whether he had received the prestigious award, which is given by top Navy officials to a single individual annually.

The Post's inquiries were sparked by complaints from a representative of state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, Kirk's Democratic opponent in the Illinois Senate race.

Cmdr. Danny Hernandez, the Navy's assistant chief of information, said for several days last week that he was having trouble finding records to clarify the matter. Then on Friday, he said Kirk, an Appropriations Committee member who co-chairs an electronic warfare working group, had changed his Web site to incorporate a different account of the award.

COMMENT:  This is sickening and devastating, and calls for complete integrity and consistency on the part of the Republican Party.  Recently, as readers know, we learned that Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, the Democratic candidate for the Senate seat being vacated by Chris Dodd, had lied about his service record, claiming he'd been in Vietnam during the war, when in fact he had not.

Now this.   Republicans have been rough on Blumenthal, and must be equally rough on Kirk.  Kirk has been a GOP golden boy, a candidate seen as having a good shot at defeating the ethically challenged Alexi Giannoulias, in a normally Democratic state.  This revelation essentially neutralizes any claim Kirk has had to ethical purity.

Let's see if the two men – Kirk and Blumenthal – are treated equally by the mainstream media.  Blumenthal refuses to withdraw, and appears to believe, along with his party, that he can ride out the ethical storm.  Now the focus turns to Kirk.

My own sense is that Kirk must withdraw.  Otherwise, GOP claims of high ethical standards dissolve into thin air.  But without the attractive Kirk, the Republicans have almost no chance in Illinois. 

So, once again, we warn that all the glib predictions of an easy Republican victory this November are of no significance.  Each day brings political developments, and possible disasters.

We'll follow this closely.  Unless Kirk can come up with some satisfactory explanation for his false claim, and I don't think there is one, he is, if not toast, at least bread being quickly brought to room temperature and above.

May 29, 2010