Eric Kleefeld June 29, 2010, 12:57 PM

Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL), whose Senate campaign has run into trouble due to his past misstatements about his military record, bluntly admitted at a press conference today that his words had been “careless.”

The Chicago ABC station reports that Kirk was asked by reporters what he was thinking when he made the misstatements. His response: “I was not thinking.”

Kirk had previously claimed to have served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and also that he had received the Navy’s Intelligence Officer of the Year award. Neither of these statements were quite true — Kirk’s unit had received a different award, the Rufus L. Taylor Intelligence Award, and Kirk had served in the Navy during Operation Iraqi Freedom, but not in Iraq itself.

The TPM Poll Average has Kirk leading his Democratic opponent, state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, by 43.0%-38.0%. However, this data comes almost entirely from before Kirk’s scandals had broken, and while Giannoulias had been dealing with his own political problems stemming from the failure of his family’s bank.

Late Update: The Giannoulias campaign has released this statement from spokesman Matt McGrath:

“In terms of hollow apologies and passive-voice blame-shifting, Congressman Mark Kirk’s acknowledgment of ‘misrememberings’ and ‘carelessness’ sets a new standard. Allow me to be blunt: Congressman Kirk wasn’t careless and he didn’t misremember - he lied. One mistake is careless. Misrepresenting, embellishing or not telling the truth about 10 different phases of your military career over a 10-year period is a pattern of lies, plain and simple. When these mistruths have been repeated on the floor of the House of Representatives, on a taxpayer-funded official website, in campaign television ads and materials, in press releases, on campaign websites, and from his own lips, Congressman Kirk’s web of lies can’t be fixed by one phony press conference.”

2010 elections, IL-SEN, Mark Kirk, Senate '12