Marathon Pundit: Immigrant activist group hits Mark Kirk with dishonest ad

Friday, September 04, 2009

Immigrant activist group hits Mark Kirk with dishonest ad

Another part of the day, another post about the 2010 Senate Illinois Senate race, and another Chicago Sun-Times article from Mark Brown:

An Illinois immigrant rights group plans Thursday to launch an ad campaign in Spanish language media to try to discredit U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk for a remark he made two years ago endorsing birth control in Mexico as a partial solution to illegal immigration in the U.S.

The attack on Kirk, a front-running Republican candidate for the Senate, is said to be the first salvo in a new national effort by immigrant advocates to exact political punishment on those seen as antagonistic to their cause. The campaign exploits a loophole in federal law that allows nonprofit groups to operate separate "voter education" efforts.

The print ads will picture Kirk's face on a condom package, with a condom circling his head like a bull's-eye, while the radio ad begins with a narrator saying: "I wonder what goes on inside the mind of a congressman when he states that the solution for immigration is to send condoms to Mexico."

Actually, Kirk never said anything about condoms, nor did he specifically use the words "birth control," although I think the latter at least is a fair inference to draw from what he actually did say.

I disagree on it being a "fair inference."

Here's the 2007 statement that has the group riled up:

A slower rate of growth of Mexico's population would improve the economy of Mexico. It would also reduce the environmental pressure on Mexico's ecosystem. But a slower rate of growth would also reduce the long-term illegal immigration pressure on America's borders.