The unraveling of Republican Senatorial candidate Mark Kirk continues apace. Not content at letting the Chicago Tribune have all the fun knocking down Kirk's fantasized military credentials and experience, the Sun-Times jumps in the game today with a devastating takedown on Kirk's supposed foreign policy expertise.
They start with China:
But some of the stories Kirk tells on the stump seem a bit too good to be true. When he last ran for re-election to his congressional seat, he got into trouble for saying China was drilling for oil off the coast of Cuba, which was not true, he acknowledged Thursday in a meeting with the Sun-Times editorial board.
And then some silly comic book version of Sarkozy and pirate confrontation:
"We began to see some backbone, not from the U.S. but from France," Kirk said. "France was always good for a quick $2 million ransom until the election of President Sarkozy. When his first ship was seized, he authorized the standard ransom payment -- with a transmitter in the box. As that went into the pirate compound, he then authorized French Special Forces to roll in. And they killed everybody. . . . It kind of shocked us in the Pentagon. But it sent a clear message and I don't think the French have had many problems since."
Here's the problem: Much of the answer was fiction. It wasn't the first ship attacked after Sarkozy took office; and the French Special Forces didn't kill everybody. In fact they didn't kill anybody, Sarkozy has said.
And then, most disturbingly for a sitting House representative, complete lack of knowledge not just about energy policy in general, but about what countries are on the official U.S. shit list for trading oil:
Last year, Kirk told WLS-AM (890) that America should drill offshore for oil so we don't have to import oil from Iran: "We have a fundamental choice. . . . We can either buy 80 billion barrels of oil from the Iranians or from ourselves. And we should buy it from ourselves," he said.
The problem is, the U.S doesn't get oil from Iran. The U.S. government has adopted sanctions for any company that would try.
As Joan pointed out yesterday, Kirk's had a tough week. Now the weekend doesn't look any better.