ArchPundit

Via House Race Hotline (subscription based)

At a 10/19 debate, Rep. Mark Kirk (R) “portrayed himself as a maverick who is pro-choice, pro-environment and pro-education,” claiming that “Washington Post voted him the eighth most independent member of Congress.” ’06 nominee Dan Seals (D), however, “continued to link Kirk with” Bush, and also “attacked Kirk for voting against a bill calling for equal pay for women in the workplace, the Paycheck Fairness Act.” Seals: “I believe that women should receive equal pay for equal work. It’s as basic as that.”

Kirk “defended his record on women’s rights, including his support of the Equal Rights Amendment and his endorsement by Planned Parenthood.” Kirk: “I believe that you should control your rights if you feel discriminated against and not have them taken over by a class action trial lawyer.”

Yeah, it’s a class action trial lawyer bill that says women can have time to bring the suit after they find out about the discrimination.  The horrors. Instead, Mark Kirk wants to limit it to 6 months from the time of the discrimination regardless of whether the victim knows about it or not.

IOW, it’s fine to have the right to sue as long as you are unlikely to know you are even a victim.

Line of the night:\

Audience members laughed when Mark Kirk called himself one of the most
independent Republicans in Congress. Kirk backed it up, saying that’s
what the Washington Post reported.

Dan Seals attacked: “As for independence, Congressional Quarterly says
that Mark Kirk is voting party line almost 90 percent of the time. So
you can call yourself a Republican, an independent, or a Democrat. The
fact is, if you are voting to subsidize the oil industry, voting to
intervene in the Terri Schiavo case, or voting for this war in Iraq,
then I have a disagreement with you, and I don’t think you’re doing a
good job of representing this district.”

More from the Herald

Seals reacted sharply to the attack. He said, “Perhaps because you have never had a job outside of Washington, you don’t understand the difference between commercial lending, which has nothing to do with residential lending.” He added, “While you have never had a job outside of Washington, in 16 days I’m going to give you a chance.”

Kirk replied, “That’s right. When I was not working in the United States Congress, I was serving in the United States Navy.”

On the issue of the Iraq war, Seals said he supports bringing the troops home in a responsible, phased manner. He said his opponent has voted more than a dozen times to keep the troops in Iraq.

Kirk, however, pointed out that eight more military bases have closed in Iraq.

“Our partisan eyes don’t allow us to see what is good going on there and only see what is bad.

“We should wind this mission up, but wind it up carefully to make sure that two wars in Iraq are enough, that we should never go back.”

Seals said, “My partisan eyes say that an estimated cost of one day in Iraq is $195 million. With that money, we could have converted 47,000 cars from gas to electric, we could have purchased the highest quality body armor for 66,000 troops, we could have rebuilt 2,200 homes in New Orleans, we could have covered health care for 27,000 families.”