Having a hard time keeping in mind all of the instances of Mark Kirk's debunked claims about his military service? Steve Benen's got you covered.
As of about a week ago, I think the list was up to eight separate incidents: Kirk (1) falsely claimed he served "in" Operation Iraqi Freedom; (2) falsely claimed to "command the war room in the Pentagon"; (3) falsely claimed to have won the U.S. Navy's Intelligence Officer of the Year award; (4) falsely claimed to have been shot at by the Iraqi Air Defense network; (5) falsely claimed to be a veteran of Desert Storm; (6) falsely claimed to be the only lawmaker to serve during Operation Iraqi Freedom; and (7) falsely claimed to have been shot at in Kosovo; and (8) falsely claimed to have been shot at in Kandahar.
And, as Steve notes, we can add number 9 with the deployment debunking, in which Kirk repeatedly claims his annual training missions are deployments. The Navy begs to differ.
We're working on number 10, as well, since Nitpicker got confirmation from the DOD that he had violated Pentagon policy by conducting partisan political activity while on active duty, which Kirk has strenuously denied, even to the point of claiming that the Obama administration altered his record.
Can he break a dozen? Given the latest polling, maybe he should try an entirely new tactic. Say, telling the truth?