{"id":2942,"date":"2015-07-20T13:32:47","date_gmt":"2015-07-20T18:32:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/?p=2942"},"modified":"2015-07-20T13:35:36","modified_gmt":"2015-07-20T18:35:36","slug":"mark-kirk-shedding-his-moderate-skin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/mark-kirk-shedding-his-moderate-skin\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Kirk Shedding His “Moderate” Skin?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"kirk_blog_dec30\"Last month\u00a0it was the, er, intemperate and misogynistic\u00a0“bro with no ho” comments<\/a>. \u00a0Now this month\u00a0it’s accusing “Barack Hussein Obama” of wanting Iran to have nukes.<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0What’s next? \u00a0It really makes you wonder how “moderate” any Republican is these days. \u00a0Or maybe he just has very little control of what crosses his lips. \u00a0Either way, we can do better.<\/p>\n

Here’s Ed Kilgore in an amusing take from last week:<\/p>\n

On the Crazy Train to 2016<\/a><\/h2>\n

By Ed Kilgore<\/em><\/p>\n

I know the air is filled with Republican hysteria about the Iran nuclear deal, but it\u2019s still possible to distinguish honest disagreement on a complex topic with politically motivated or just plain crazy treatment of this highly contingent multilateral agreement as one of the worst moments in human history. I mean, it\u2019s one thing to talk about acceptable and unacceptable risks, but some of these birds are acting as though the missiles aimed at Tel Aviv are being armed as we speak.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, read this series of quotes<\/a> served up by Buzzfeed<\/em>\u2019s Andrew Kaczynski and see if you can figure out who might have uttered them:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis agreement condemns the next generation to cleaning up a nuclear war in the Persian Gulf,\u201d ____ said. \u201cIt condemns our Israel allies to further conflict with Iran.\u201d ____ added that he thought the agreement will yield \u201cmore nukes, and more terrorists, and more irresponsibility by the Iranians,\u201d saying he thought Iran will now increase their influence in Iraq and Yemen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThis is the greatest appeasement since Chamberlain gave Czechoslovakia to Hitler,\u201d ____ continued, saying he believed Obama only went through with the deal because he has a poor understanding of history and did not realize appeasement made war more likely. _____ said he thought the deal meant that Israel would now have to take \u201cmilitary action against Iran.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThe president will make this a viciously partisan issue, leading most Democrats to standing with the Iranians and hopefully losing the next election on this point,\u201d ____ said. \u201cHe will ask the Democrats all to stand with Iran and make sure that we can\u2019t get two-thirds majorities in the House and Senate.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Asked if any Democrats disagreed with the president, ____ pointed to New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and New Jersey Democrat Bob Menendez, who he believed \u201chas just been indicted maybe on the crime of being against the Iran deal.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

____ said he believed the only reason the president supported legislation from Republican Sen. Bob Corker, the chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, that allowed Congress to review the deal was because he \u201cwants\u2026to get nukes to Iran.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Okay, time\u2019s up. Who do you suspect? Frank Gaffney? Jennifer Rubin? James Inhofe? Ted Cruz? Lindsey Graham? Tom Cotton?<\/p>\n

No, it\u2019s the junior senator from Illinois, Mark Kirk, often described as a \u201ccentrist\u201d or a \u201cmoderate,\u201d and universally thought of as the most endangered U.S. Senator going into his 2016 reelection race.<\/p>\n

I guess this could be some ploy to pursue Jewish voters, though there wouldn\u2019t be this whole meme about Netanyahu\u2019s war with American Jews if that sort of talk was widely popular with Jewish folk. Or maybe he\u2019s making up for lost gabbing after his recovery from a stroke. But it\u2019s weird to see a statewide elected official from the president\u2019s home state\u2014a blue state at that\u2014basically accuse him of deliberate assistance to terrorists right before voters consider him for another term.<\/p>\n