Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) issued a blistering statement Wednesday strongly denouncing Indiana Gov. Mike Pence’s (R) decision to sign into law a controversial religious freedom bill that critics say would pave the way for discrimination against gays and lesbians.
“I strongly oppose what Governor Pence did. We should not enshrine bigotry under the cover of religion. It’s not just bad practice – it’s un-American,” Kirk in the statement.
Pence has been under intense criticism by both business leaders and Democrats. But it’s been more mixed among Republicans. While Kirk, who endorsed same-sex marriage in 2013, opposes Pence’s move, other national Republicans, like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, supports his decision.
On Tuesday said he would look to add a clarification to the law.
Holy crap, a sane Republican?!
The opening salvo between fiscal and social conservatives in Congress.
I hope Kirk issued this statement because he truly believes it and not because he’s up for reelection soon and wants to appear moderate.
Don’t get too excited - '16 is an election year for him, in a blue state, and he’s gonna tack to the left from now till then. He’s still a right wing militarist prick when you take away the present pandering.
Sane is a bit of a stretch, it’s more like shrewd. This is a guy who is sitting in Barack Obama’s former seat, a guy who won almost solely because he ran in a wave election during a midterm, a guy who realizes it’s quite likely he’s going to have to run against a veteran, a woman who is a double amputee as a result of serving her country. He probably realizes he’s going to have to run against this woman with the first woman candidate for president at the top of the ticket and he’s going to be running in a state that is almost certainly going to go to the Democratic woman at the top of the ticket who also happens to have been born there. He’s got very long odds against him and it sure doesn’t hurt him to be able to bash a border state by taking a liberal stance on an issue with which most of his constituents agree. As we get closer to 2016, look for more of this kind of sanity from Ayotte, Toomey, Portman, Johnson, and whomever runs for Rubio’s seat.