The last time we left the Republican Senate candidate in Illinois, Mark Kirk, he was repeatedly, and falsely, claiming to have won some big award from the Navy. Now the Chicago Trib has found that Kirk’s lies extend beyond his CV.
When he last ran for re-election to his congressional seat, he got into trouble for saying China was drilling for oil off the coast of Cuba, which was not true, he acknowledged Thursday in a meeting with the Sun-Times editorial board.Speaking to the City Club of Chicago last year just after President Obama authorized the shooting of Somali pirates who kidnapped American Capt. Richard Phillips, Kirk got a whole lot wrong talking about pirates attacking ships off Africa.
“We began to see some backbone, not from the U.S. but from France,” Kirk said. “France was always good for a quick $2 million ransom until the election of President Sarkozy. When his first ship was seized, he authorized the standard ransom payment — with a transmitter in the box. As that went into the pirate compound, he then authorized French Special Forces to roll in. And they killed everybody. . . . It kind of shocked us in the Pentagon. But it sent a clear message and I don’t think the French have had many problems since.”
It turns out, most of Kirk’s story about France was completely false.
Last year, Kirk told WLS-AM (890) that America should drill offshore for oil so we don’t have to import oil from Iran: “We have a fundamental choice. . . . We can either buy 80 billion barrels of oil from the Iranians or from ourselves. And we should buy it from ourselves,” he said.
The problem is, the U.S doesn’t get oil from Iran. The U.S. government has adopted sanctions for any company that would try.
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