Mark Kirk's Twitter Trouble

Senate candidate may have tweeted when he shouldn't have

By ZACH CHRISTMAN

Updated 4:06 PM CST, Thu, Jul 30, 2009

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Senate candidate Mark Kirk is being called out by a blogger for sending tweets while on active duty as a reservist.

Kirk, a Republican, serves in the Naval Reserves. On July 25, he (or someone working for him) posted a tweet that read, "On duty @ the Pentagon's National Military Command Center. All is currently (relatively) quiet. Honor 2 be back w/ my fellow Navy colleagues."

The next day, another post:

"Back on duty in the National Military Command Center - lets hope for a calm day for our troops."

Seems innocent enough, but as we all know, loose lips sink ships. CapitolFax's Rich Miller, who grew up a military kid, was startled by the posts for two reasons: One, Kirk may have violated military rules by disclosing his location while on duty. And two, members of the military are not allowed to work on a political campaign while on active duty.

Miller cites military regulations that say a member on active duty cannot participate in political campaigning, either publicly or behind the scenes. Those regulations seems pretty clear:

"Web sites created before entry on active duty may not be updated or revised and may be ordered shut down as the Secretary concerned may direct."

Miller even followed up with the Pentagon, which said the Navy would issue a statement about Kirk's tweets by next week. In the meantime, the Kirk campaign is claiming that he didn't post the tweets himself, but a staff member did it for him. Whether that makes everything OK with the DoD remains to be seen.

Now, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has also chimed in, saying this raises questions about Kirk's judgment.

"We look forward to him offering a thorough explanation," DSCC Communications Director Eric Schultz said.

Kirk's campaign has been trying to use Twitter to stay in touch with his supporters in a hip, Web 2.0 sort of way. Kudos to him. But will it all backfire? Stay tuned.

First Published: Jul 30, 2009 1:26 PM CST

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0 Comments

{"totSize":5,"payload_type":"json","status":"1","results":[{"anonName":null,"pathToMedia":"388834_52088462","adminTags":null,"views":1641,"createdBy":7918844,"createdByPathToPhoto":"116995/icons/defaultMember_116995_portrait.jpg","assocMediaId":null,"mediaName":"Mark Kirk's in Twitter Trouble","parentThreadId":null,"mediaId":974747,"tags":null,"anonSiteUrl":null,"assocMediaType":null,"createdAt":"30 Jul 2009 19:25:57 GMT","anonEmail":null,"isVisible":true,"approved":true,"numComments":5,"reviewed":true,"createdByUsername":"anonymous_user","pathToPreview":"","mediaType":"EXTERNALMEDIA","commentId":"503386","subject":"","averageRating":0,"body":"What about all the Soldiers with Myspace and facebook pages they are on while at war?? Isn't that the same thing?"},{"anonName":null,"pathToMedia":"388834_52088462","adminTags":null,"views":1641,"createdBy":7918844,"createdByPathToPhoto":"116995/icons/defaultMember_116995_portrait.jpg","assocMediaId":null,"mediaName":"Mark Kirk's in Twitter Trouble","parentThreadId":null,"mediaId":974747,"tags":null,"anonSiteUrl":null,"assocMediaType":null,"createdAt":"30 Jul 2009 19:41:31 GMT","anonEmail":null,"isVisible":true,"approved":true,"numComments":5,"reviewed":true,"createdByUsername":"anonymous_user","pathToPreview":"","mediaType":"EXTERNALMEDIA","commentId":"503530","subject":"","averageRating":0,"body":"Ok, this is a waste of space. We have politicians wearing wires and making back room deals all day and everyday in our fine City and this is a newsworthy story?"},{"anonName":null,"pathToMedia":"388834_52088462","adminTags":null,"views":1641,"createdBy":7918844,"createdByPathToPhoto":"116995/icons/defaultMember_116995_portrait.jpg","assocMediaId":null,"mediaName":"Mark Kirk's in Twitter Trouble","parentThreadId":null,"mediaId":974747,"tags":null,"anonSiteUrl":null,"assocMediaType":null,"createdAt":"30 Jul 2009 20:15:22 GMT","anonEmail":null,"isVisible":true,"approved":true,"numComments":5,"reviewed":true,"createdByUsername":"anonymous_user","pathToPreview":"","mediaType":"EXTERNALMEDIA","commentId":"503839","subject":"","averageRating":0,"body":"Would seem that Kirk's disregard for military rules kind of match his lack of understanding of political sense, as well. It's my understanding, that this yoyo went to our largest lender (China) and told them that they should not trust our ability to pay back our loans. If this is true, he shouldn't even be considered for the higher office of Senator."},{"anonName":null,"pathToMedia":"388834_52088462","adminTags":null,"views":1641,"createdBy":7918844,"createdByPathToPhoto":"116995/icons/defaultMember_116995_portrait.jpg","assocMediaId":null,"mediaName":"Mark Kirk's in Twitter Trouble","parentThreadId":null,"mediaId":974747,"tags":null,"anonSiteUrl":null,"assocMediaType":null,"createdAt":"30 Jul 2009 22:50:12 GMT","anonEmail":null,"isVisible":true,"approved":true,"numComments":5,"reviewed":true,"createdByUsername":"anonymous_user","pathToPreview":"","mediaType":"EXTERNALMEDIA","commentId":"504988","subject":"","averageRating":0,"body":"Hey, if you're in the military, aren't you supposed to take rules seriously? Isn't that the entire point?"},{"anonName":null,"pathToMedia":"388834_52088462","adminTags":null,"views":1641,"createdBy":9718207,"createdByPathToPhoto":"116995/icons/defaultMember_116995_portrait.jpg","assocMediaId":null,"mediaName":"Mark Kirk's in Twitter Trouble","parentThreadId":null,"mediaId":974747,"tags":null,"anonSiteUrl":null,"assocMediaType":null,"createdAt":"5 Aug 2009 16:09:47 GMT","anonEmail":null,"isVisible":true,"approved":true,"numComments":5,"reviewed":true,"createdByUsername":"Kent_F_Sperling","pathToPreview":"","mediaType":"EXTERNALMEDIA","commentId":"538600","subject":"","averageRating":0,"body":"First of all, Mark Kirk himself did not post that comment, it was a staffer who did. It was purely a mistake in his office.\nSecond, his location wasn't a secret, and it was no detriment at all to military security. \nIt may seem like a silly thing to do, but it was only a mistake. It has already cleared up, and it was never worth the fuss it created."}],"error":"","totPages":1}