Sorry doesn’t cut it for the Human Rights Campaign.
The largest gay rights lobby in the country took the unprecedented step of withdrawing its endorsement from Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Illinois, because of a caustic, racially tinged remark he made in a debate with Democratic opponent Tammy Duckworth Thursday night.
Duckworth, a double amputee military veteran who was born in Thailand of Chinese and American descent, had said that “my family has served in uniform going back to the Revolution” and called herself a “daughter of the Revolution.”
“I had forgotten that your parents came all the way from Thailand to serve George Washington,” Kirk, a veteran who is wheelchair bound following a stroke, shot back snarkily.
A moment of stunned silence followed and then the two resumed debate.
Kirk the next day offered an apology on social media. “Sincere apologies to an American hero, Tammy Duckworth, and gratitude for her family’s service,” he wrote on Twitter.
According to a statement by HRC president Chad Griffin Saturday, that didn’t cut it.
“We endorsed the sitting Senator, Mark Kirk,” Griffin explained, “because he has been a strong supporter of our cause time and again, scoring a 100 percent on HRC’s most recent Congressional Scorecard. But events this week have gone beyond the pale for our standards of leadership.”
Griffin acknowledged that Kirk had apologized but insisted that the apology “failed to adequately address the real harm and magnitude of his words.”
Kirk’s ailing fortunes may also have contributed to HRC’s unendorsement.
The organization cited the importance of building bipartisan coalitions as one reason it had endorsed Kirk in the first place. But if he looks like a loser anyway, there’s less of a reason to back him and Real Clear Politics polling averages currently have Duckworth up 7 points.
