The Character of the Senate Race in Illinois

Yesterday I watched Meet the Press. This is a program that I have watched intermittently for a number of years. Sitting in my office, working in the quiet of Sunday morning I listened casually as David Gregory introduced the program’s content. The program yesterday consisted of a debate between the two candidates, Mr. Kirk and Mr. Giannoulias for U.S. Senate in Illinois. I did not give the debate my full attention until Gregory turned the questions to matters of character. Mr. Kirk has been accused exaggerating his military record and Mr. Giannoulias accused of making loans through his family owned community bank to known mobsters.

Since these are not the typical matters of Senate races I paid attention to how each answered. Mr. Kirk took complete responsibility for the exaggerations of his record stating that it was his fault and no one else’s. He also stated he loved this country. However he did not answer the deeper question, why had he exaggerated his military record.

Mr. Giannoulias was asked directly if he had known that certain borrower from his bank were known members of the mob. His response was “I didn’t know the extent of their activities.” Again he did not answer the question implied buy not stated by David Gregory. To what extent did you know their activities.

Missing from each gentleman’s answers was a the frankness to answer directly how these mistakes happened, the circumstances within which they happened, and whether they would do the same thing again. We had a powerful glimpse into the character of each candidate yesterday and one can only hope that when the Illinois voters cast their ballots on November 2 that one of the choices will be “none of the above.”