Kirk said his foreign policy speech to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs was an effort to elevate the U.S. Senate campaign.
"A careful and experienced leader as our next senator should be, must know that foreign policy must be more than just important," Kirk said.
But as Kirk spoke, Chicago television stations began airing a new ad for Democrat Alexi Giannoulias. The commercial is about Kirk's embellishments of his military and professional histories.
"Now, typical Washington politician Kirk is lying about Alexi Giannoulias in ads denounced as smears," the ad says.
"Character matters, and he's [Kirk] lied about important parts of his professional career, and it begs the question, 'What else has he not told the truth about?'" said Giannoulias.
At the news conference after his speech, Kirk quickly abandoned the notion of an elevated campaign. He attempted to link the Giannoulias family's failed Broadway Bank to a convicted international businessman involved in arms deals with Saddam Hussein.
Outside the Kirk event, Giannoulias' campaign-sponsored demonstrators performed the same as Kirk-sponsored protestors did their thing outside last week's Giannoulias fundraiser with President Obama.
"The people can no longer afford this soap opera that is occurring between these two candidates," said Lealan Jones," the Green Party U.S. Senate candidate
Jones has been watching Kirk and Giannoulias duke it out.
"To think with all the millions of dollars that both of these individuals have to buy ads, they are not enforcing or establishing any substance on the issues," Jones said.
Last week, the Democratic fundraiser featuring President Obama infused-- at the very least-- hundreds of thousands of dollars into the Giannoulias campaign. He wasted no time spending some of windfall on the new ad attacking Mark Kirk.
