Friday Open Thread

Welcome to your Friday open Thread. I’m still in Vegas so posting from me will be spotty. I’m busy plotting the world take-over. Mwuhahahahaha. Shhhhhh….don’t tell anyone about the sekrit plan.

Serial exaggerator Mark Kirk is in the news again. Does this guy ever tell the truth?

Today, the Chicago Tribune finds yet another Kirk story that doesn’t hold up. (thanks to reader R.G.)

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kirk for a decade has told the story of how he nearly drowned when he was 16 while sailboating on Lake Michigan and how his rescue by the Coast Guard inspired him to pursue a career in public service.

The story is sprinkled with attention-grabbing details, but there are inconsistencies in Kirk’s statements that suggest parts of his real-life drama have been embellished, a Tribune review has found.

In the most recent instance, the 50-year-old North Shore congressman told a boating magazine that he stood on his overturned sailboat and watched the sun set, when in fact he was rescued in midafternoon on June 15, 1976.

Kirk also has said he swam up to a mile in 42-degree water and that he was rescued with his body temperature hovering two degrees from death. Those declarations are questionable, based on interviews with an eyewitness and medical experts.

Look, I don’t much care what happened to Kirk as a 16-year-old. He’s described this “as one of the most important events” of his entire life, and I’m sure it was traumatic.

The point is the larger pattern — Mark Kirk tells a lot of stories, asks voters to believe those stories, and then we find out that those stories aren’t true. In some instances, Kirk’s tall tales are demonstrable lies with no basis in fact, but more often, the Republican embellishes reality, giving the truth a more dramatic spin that makes him look better.

Is Mark Kirk screwed or will he pull through. It does seem like his tendency to exaggerate has opened a lot of people into looking deeper into his history. Unfortunately for Kirk, a lot of it is false.

This is amusing. David Vitter attracted a Republican primary challenger because of his multiple scandals. Well, it seems that Chet Traylor is another one of those “family values” Republicans.

So this news today from the Monroe News Star looking at Traylor’s many affairs calls into question what he was thinking when he decided to get into a race on the basis of personal integrity:

State Rep. Noble Ellington, D-Winnsboro, said that Traylor was “significantly involved” in the cause of his divorce from Peggy McDowell, who later married Chet Traylor and became Peggy McDowell Traylor.

…

Traylor is also currently involved in a romantic relationship with Denise Lively, the estranged wife of his stepson, Ryan Ellington, the son of Noble Ellington.

Traylor’s stepsons have also sued Traylor, claiming that he tried to block them from collecting information about the estate of their mother, Peggy McDowell Traylor, who died last year, according to the News Star.