Did Kirk Break Military Regs With Twitter Posts?
Did Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL), who is now running in 2010 for the Senate seat formerly held by President Obama, violate military regulations when his campaign put up Twitter posts about his active service in the Naval Reserve?
This all started when The Capitol Fax Blog, a well-known state political site in Illinois, reported that Kirk (or his campaign) put up this Twitter post several days ago: "On duty @ the Pentagon's National Military Command Center. All is currently (relatively) quiet. Honor 2 be back w/ my fellow Navy colleagues"
Kirk's campaign now says that Kirk himself did not put up either this Tweet or another one. Instead, they say a staffer posted the pre-approved messages.
The potential problem, however, is that military regulations strictly forbid active-duty personnel who may be political candidates from engaging in anything campaign-related, even down to "behind-the-scenes activities."
The key questions here are: 1) Whether Kirk's campaign is telling the truth that he did not post the Tweets, but a staffer did; 2) Whether this, too, would violate the rules; and perhaps most importantly, 3) Even if this broke the rules, will anything actually be done against it?


















Another eagle abandoning his children. Once and never again.
July 30, 2009 5:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
If Obama can order Odeirno to shave Steven Colbert's head he can order Kirk to clean the toilets with a toothbrush. And that's letting him off easy he ought to clean them with his tongue. Even Vitter's hookers wouldn't touch him after that.
July 30, 2009 5:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nothing to see here. Move along.
July 30, 2009 5:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Seems like much ado about nothing. Interesting, but let's pick our battles, eh?
July 30, 2009 5:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
1) No idea, it wouldnt be uncommon.
2) Yes it would, he approved of the tweet so it might as well have been coming out of his own mouth. Cant run a ad on tv with him in military uniform and say, well he didn't make the ad, though his campaign did and he saw it and approved of it.
3) Most likely nothing will be done, its not really much to fight about imo, especially if this is just a one time thing.
July 30, 2009 6:12 PM | Reply | Permalink