Kirk talks about Senate race

The race for U.S. Senate has taken some ugly twists and turns in recent months, but Republican Mark Kirk said Thursday it has turned out exactly as he thought when he first announced his candidacy.

“I knew how big this was and I knew the nth degree of scrutiny, Kirk, a five-term congressman from Highland Park said. “Politics in the age of the Internet is withering. You've got to withstand the heat, and I understood just how much heat was coming.

Politics in Illinois, he noted, “ain't beanbag.

Both Kirk and Democratic opponent Alexi Giannoulias campaigns' for President Barack Obama's old Senate seat have been dogged by personal issues the April collapse of Giannoulias' family's bank and June revelations of Kirk's embellished military record.

The candidates have branded one another as a “mob banker and “serial liar, respectively, spending more time attacking each other's honesty and credibility than debating the issues.

Neck and neck in the extremely high profile race, neither has showed signs of letting up.

Kirk's comments came at a Daily Herald editorial endorsement session, the same day Obama was in town to fundraise for Giannoulias.

He said the election was “ready for an adult conversation.

At the same time, Kirk said he takes responsibility for the ads that he produces but isn't privy to the information contained in GOP-produced ads.

The tone of the race, he said, comes from “the structure of who I am and who Alexi Giannoulias is.

Kirk said he knew he was “going to go through a firestorm of scrutiny as he campaigned.

“My job is to take it as an adult, to respond. In the case of my military record, to apologize and in the end submit to the judgment of the people, he said

In an interview last Friday, Giannoulias said his mother had been bothered by all of the negative campaigning, and he made a pledge to her to be more positive.

“We're going to start focusing more on positive ads. I kind of made a pledge to her that I would do that.

Still, he said, “me saying I'm a nice guy on camera only goes so far.