Illinois state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, the Democratic nominee for President Obama’s former Senate seat, has a new TV ad brutally taking down his Republican rival, Rep. Mark Kirk, over Kirk’s various misstatements about his military record.
The ad is a montage of news clips and headlines about Kirk’s false claims: That he won a prestigious officer’s award, that he was shot at in Iraq, and that he has commanded the Pentagon War Room. In each case, video of Kirk making the claim is accompanied by the date, so the viewer gets to see him telling tall tales throughout the past decade in 2002, 2003, 2009 and 2010. And the on-screen text at the end of the ad provides the most damaging label of all, in this election year: “Typical Washington Politician.”
The Giannoulias camp tells us that the ad will be on TV, but is not up as of yet while they are working out the details of the buy. The TPM Poll Average gives Kirk a lead of 43.1%-38.4%. Giannoulias was having a rough time in the last few months due to his own problem, the failure of his family’s bank — which Kirk is going after in his own attack ads. But now that the press has done a lot of work digging up Kirk’s scandals, Giannoulias is clearly going back on offense.
