Posted on 03/10/2015 2:01:55 PM PDT by Citizen Zed
CHICAGO (AP) — When U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk suffered a debilitating stroke in 2012, he faced a grueling recovery and serious questions about how he could continue his political career.
Now the Illinois Republican, who won the Senate seat Barack Obama vacated to run for president, is one of the Democrats' top targets as they try to recapture control of the chamber. But far from downplaying his disability, which requires him to rely on a cane or wheelchair at times, Kirk believes it gives him a unique advantage.
Kirk says the setback has raised his public profile, noting that more people now stop to greet and encourage him. He believes it will help steel him against attacks by Democrats lining up to paint him as too extreme for a state that, before he took office, had only elected one GOP candidate to the Senate since 1968.
"Now I'm definitely a disabled American with a wheelchair," Kirk said in an interview. "That makes me not quite the demonizable Republican candidate that you would think."
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted2.ap.org ...
I am dis-abled therefore I am fair.
That erectile dysfunction should carry the undecideds.
Is he on the Dole ?
Kirk is a democrat with an “R” behind his name.
More importantly there is no Republican party in IL to speak of that would run an actual conservative against him in the primary.
What I figured.
Never let a serious (medical) crisis go to waste.
It’s getting real hard to tell these dolts apart without that single letter after their names...
he may get the “sympathy vote” for needing a wheelchair (tho I saw him using a cane...), but his recent vote to support AMNESTY and participation in a pro-AMNESTY/PUSH AMNESTY workshop with the new Governor, Dold, KinZinger, Schock, pretty well negates any “sympathy vote” I might have had...I am just hoppin mad over their support and BROADCAST DESIRE to PUSH AMNESTY...
Gee, having an opponent who was in a Wheelchair didn’t stop Abortion Barbie from attacking Abbott in Texas.
In fact, she tried to use his Disability against him.
“Kirk is a democrat with an “R” behind his name.”
That’s a fact.
Kirk is a democrat with an “R” behind his name.
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Yes, maybe this is true -— but he is at most a ‘RAT-very lite. Any replacement Democrat would be a ‘RAT-100%. This is Illinois after all...not Texas.
I agree. Kirk is liberal, but far less to the socialist left than any Democrat opponent.
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