Mark Kirk (R-IL) Shows Us How to Lose a Senate Seat With One Racist Remark

Tammy Duckworth, Democratic hopeful for the U.S. Senate from Illinois, is an Iraq War veteran who lost both of her legs in 2004 when a rocket-propelled grenade hit the helicopter she was flying. She’s also the daughter of a U.S. Marines veteran who can trace his lineage back to the Revolutionary War, and a Thai mother—her parents met after her father served in Vietnam. Duckworth was born in Thailand, and later immigrated, along with her mother, to Hawaii.

Mark Kirk, the Republican incumbent, has quite a different military story. He claimed that he served in Iraq, and he also claimed that he won an “Intelligence Officer of the Year” award, but both of these claims turned out be total bullshit.

Which makes this interaction, from yesterday’s debate, so interesting:

Boy, that was dumb!

Here’s a tip, Mark: Sometimes, a person from one country can marry another person from a different country, and if they have a child, that child is the genetic product of both heritages. Does that make sense? And if that child, say, serves her country and wins a Purple Heart and loses her legs, she can rightly claim to be the latest in a line of military veterans that have served in that country’s wars. Even—and this is critical, Mark—if her skin looks more brown than you would prefer.

Duckworth already held a healthy lead in polls taken before this debate, but you have to think (hope?) that the few remaining people who didn’t already see Kirk as a national disgrace will learn their lesson from this clip.