http://www.cookrepublicanparty.com/eventDetail.aspx?eventID=2627
It was pretty similar to the Lauzen BBQ I gave an after action report about a few weeks ago, though this time all the GOP candidates for Governor were there giving speeches. Eric Wallace was also there to work the crowd.
The interesting thing is the one person who was AWOL again — Congressman Kirk (so much for “visiting all of Illinois”... based on his schedule from the last month, the suburbs south of the city must be radioactive). Of course Kirk's “people” were there for him, circulating petitions to get Marky Mark on the ballot. One perky blond lady asked if I'd sign to help “an Illinois Republican Congressman who wants to serve us in the Senate” and after seeing it was a Kirk petition I politely said “Sorry, no thanks. I'm backing another candidate”. No problemo. So she goes to the next table. She gives the same request to an elderly couple, the wife asks if Congressman Kirk is pro-life. The Kirk petitioner says “As far I know, yes. He's always been pro-life”. As this point I immediately pip up “Excuse me. Congressman Kirk is not pro-life. In fact, he got a 100% rating from Planned Parenthood last year.”. Kirk lady says “Oh my. Are you sure about that? I've meet Congressman Kirk and I've heard the only complaints from party voters have been with the cap and trade thing” I stated I was absolutely certain that Kirk was “extremely liberal” on abortion, and furthermore, votes “liberal at least 60% of the time”. I told the couple to check out project vote smart online and they can see for themselves how various issue groups rated Kirk's voting record. Stunned silence. Several people who had signed Kirk's petition asked to have it back so they could cross out their names. Kirk lady looked really embarrassed and flustered by my comments. “Look, I'm a pro-life mom myself... four kids... I'm sure I don't agree with Congressman Kirk on everything... I just know TIME magazine rated Congressman Kirk one of America's best senators and he was chosen by Congressional Quarterly as one of the hardest working men in Washington —” “He is, works hard for liberals” I added. saying “I'm not trying to attack you I'm just pointing out the facts that I've looked up his record and your candidate agrees with Democrats more often than he does with Republicans, and Republican voters should know the facts before they sign for him”. She stammers something about how you “don't have to vote for him” it's just a petition to get on the ballot so other people have that chance. I say “I understand that, and if people don't mind having a person who votes like a Democrat appearing on a Republican ballot, then they can go ahead and sign”. I think this poor chick was at a lost for words now. I just gently explained I'd rather have Congressman Kirk here to defend his record than send surrogates like her to try and justify why he's running as Republican. I added my usual speech on FR about how he's not a “social moderate” and if he wants to run on being a “thoughtful, consensus builder” who is willing to “compromise” then he should support legislation the general public overwhelmingly agrees on like a ban on partial birth abortion. She didn't have an answer to that.
I figure this lady probably knew Kirk was pro-choice all along but said he was pro-life when asked, knowing that's the only way grassroots conservatives would sign the thing. But I do think she genuinely didn't know his track record in depth and was embarrassed when I laid it out in detail and she couldn't refute it.
I wonder how many other times Kirk's campaign workers have been told to deliberately distort his record to get conservative support. Shame the little cowardly Kirk wants to represent “all” of Illinois but has only been seen on the north shore and party functions in Springfield so far. He's been on constant defense even when he holds town hall meetings in his limousine liberal district, I think out here where 80% of the voters are social conservatives he'd get eaten alive and he knows it.
I think it’s interesting she didn’t mention Kirk by name at first.
“As far as (she) knows” Kirk is pro-life huh.
I’d agree she was deliberately lying about that. But she has plausible deniability of just being a ditz with that careful wording, which is all the more proof that she was told to say that.