Kirk's has broken record on Iraq war
Recently, General David Petraeus testified before Congress on Iraq. This stirred painful memories when Congressman Mark Kirk rebuffed District 10's constituents before the general's appearance last September.
Summer 2007 (June, July, August running up to September's decision-making time on the surge), Mr. Kirk provided not a single pre-announced opportunity to debate by town, township or district the Iraq war as a priority topic.
This refers to all venues under Mr. Kirk's control (not to the large anti-Iraq war rally held at Northbrook's Renaissance Hotel, addressed by Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky and Iraq veterans and absent Mr. Kirk, August 28, 2007).
Despite unwillingness to open any scheduled debate, Mr. Kirk sent constituents a Congressional e-mail on September 20 following (not preceding) Petraeus's September 11 appearance.
Mr. Kirk claimed he had made a "bipartisan effort to open a constructive, non-political dialogue on Iraq."
Held September 10, location, undisclosed.
When I interviewed Eric Elk, Mr. Kirk's chief-of-staff, he inexplicably would not reveal the host was the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
He admitted the "dialogue" was held outside District 10 (in Chicago), a meeting Mr. Kirk merely "attended," and was "not a big deal."
He also claimed the dialogue was mere "coincidence" in falling one day before spin-sensitive 9/11.
Nevertheless, the letter alleged Mr. Kirk's role: "I was grateful for the opportunity to lead this roundtable discussion about the most important issue before the nation."
Anyone remember Mr. Kirk's "roundtable discussion" on Iraq? When he granted no such thing to District 10? In fact, we had no such debate. We didn't have a chance to attend any roundtable.
We weren't notified before it happened. It wasn't done under Mr. Kirk's auspices. All we got was an e-mail, after the fact, informing us of a dialogue in which we never took part.
Paul Wolf
Wilmette