Kirk should stop lies, bashing

A recent piece of campaign mail from the Illinois Republican Party on behalf of Congressman Mark Kirk attacked Democratic candidate Dan Seals, saying he "hasn't been employed since 2006." Mark Kirk himself was quoted this summer as saying Seals "has no steady job. He made $5,000 in income this year."

Those are inaccurate accusations that are strange. Kirk's two previous Democratic opponents for Congress, Lee Goodman and Hank Perritt, were not employed full-time while running their campaigns against Kirk and also had reduced incomes. He did not make an issue of these other candidates' employment status. Can anyone figure out why Seals is different? It seems like Mark Kirk takes liberties with the truth in a manner similar to John McCain's presidential campaign, spreading lies mixed in with exaggerations.

While it is true that Dan Seals did not work in a full-time, 40-hour a week position, he has been employed as a business consultant and as a lecturer at Northwestern University. As any consultant knows, work can be interrupted. It comes with the territory.

During the 2000 election campaign when Kirk was first elected to Congress, he himself did not hold a full-time job and only reported a $7,000 income that year.

Is this a case of the teapot calling out the black kettle? Those coded words about Seals' employment have been repeated and expanded by Kirk supporters. More than once, I have heard local Republicans quietly refer to Seals as "that unemployed black guy" and Seals supporters canvassing neighborhoods called "people from Chicago."

It is Mark Kirk who let his campaign slide into a gutter with these racially coded words.

For a Republican who masquerades as a "thoughtful independent", Kirk only proves that he is just another negative Republican.

Gregory Mysko

Northbrook