Smears take race to new low

I am horrified at the lies against Mark Kirk that have been arriving from a cynically named entity called "Patriot Majority Midwest." Mark Kirk is endorsed by the American Academy of Family Physicians and the Children's Health Fund with 100 percent ratings, but the smear group falsely claims he has voted to allow health-insurance companies to drop coverage for breast cancer screening. They also blame him for the financial meltdown, when, in reality, Mark Kirk was one of the few who voted to rein in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before their imprudent lending very nearly collapsed the U.S. economy. I have voted in this district in every local, state and federal election since 1964. Until the anti-Kirk smears of 2008, all the campaigns have done credit to the candidates of both parties and to our educated and temperate electorate. Now, the tone of "Patriot" campaign rhetoric recalls the viciousness of the Chicago political machine from which my grandparents, ordinary business people with no connections to City Hall, escaped with little more than the clothes on their back after 30 years of shakedowns from Chicago pols. I am appalled that Dan Seals has failed to bring an immediate halt to these attacks. Either he favors this demagoguery, or, just as bad, he's powerless to say no.

Harry S. Meislahn

Winnetka