Kirk, Giannoulias debate matters of trust

U.S. Senate candidates Mark Kirk and Alexi Giannoulias clashed over character as well as substantive issues in a nationally televised debate on NBC's “Meet the Press" Sunday.

Host and moderator David Gregory pressed both on trustworthiness as well as the issues in the 40-minute debate, one of the few the two major party candidates have agreed to as the Nov. 2 general election approaches.

Gregory probed Giannoulias, the Democratic state treasurer from Chicago, on loans his family's bank made to alleged mobsters, and Kirk, a Republican congressman from Highland Park, on “exaggerations he made on his military record.

Giannoulias admitted to dealing with “individuals with a colorful past" at Broadway Bank, which has since gone under, but skirted questions on whether he knew he was dealing with members of the Chicago Outfit by saying, “We didn't know the extent of that activity."

“These are all infamous mob figures," Kirk said, brandishing a sheet of such loans the bank made and adding, “You don't have to pull their rap sheet."

Kirk, meanwhile, admitted “I made mistakes in embellishing his military record. “I was careless," he added. “I was completely accountable on this."

Giannoulias drew that back to the issues, associating it with Kirk's waffling positions on cap-and-trade environmental legislation and the Dream Act proposal for immigration reform.

The two stuck largely to party positions on health care, taxes, jobs, the deficit and Social Security, with Giannoulias defending the Obama administration and Kirk staking out GOP positions in opposition.

Kirk called himself a “fiscal hawk" and distanced himself from GOP regulars by saying he's “a fiscal conservative, social moderate, citing his support for stem-cell research.

“The congressman calls himself independent," Giannoulias shot back. “The truth is the only thing he's been independent of in this campaign is the truth." On Kirk being a “fiscal hawk," Giannoulias responded, “Look, the congressman has told some real whoppers during this campaign, but that may be the biggest one of all." He said Kirk's support for extending Bush tax cuts ran counter to pledges to cut the budget, and Gregory also caught Kirk changing his position on the tax cuts since opposing an extension in 2006.

Kirk said the federal stimulus package had “largely failed," while Giannoulias countered that it “avoided a second Great Depression."

Kirk said he wanted to repeal the Obama administration's health care reform, while Giannoulias said, “He wants to repeal it. I want to reform it and fix it," and defended Social Security, saying, “I'm for strengthening Social Security, not diminishing it.

With the latter part of the debate devoted to character issues, Gregory never asked them about foreign policy or the military's “don't ask, don't tell" stance on homosexuality.

Kirk and Giannoulias have two other televised debates set in the coming weeks, at WLS Channel 7 and WTTW Channel 11, but have not been able to agree on others, in part over differences on inviting opposing candidates LeAlan Jones of the Green Party and Libertarian Mark Labno.