ArchPundit

I’m a bit puzzled by the NRSC’s response to Mark Kirk missing the vote on extending unemployment benefits:

“Congressman Mark Kirk, who in the past has voted both for and against extending unemployment benefits, apparently could not decide between pandering to right wing Republican primary voters by voting against extending unemployment benefits or doing right by thousands of Illinoisans who are facing losing their unemployment benefits. So, Kirk did the most politically courageous thing he could think of — and skipped the vote,” said a statement put out by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, among four Democrats running for Senate, followed up with his own shot on Kirk, a five-term North Shore congressman. Giannoulias contended it was Kirk’s backing of Bush administration economic policies that “helped put thousands of Illinoisans out of work to begin with.”

The Republican National Senatorial Committee waded in, noting that three prominent Chicago Democratic congressmen—Jesse Jackson Jr., Bobby Rush and Luis Gutierrez—also didn’t cast votes on the legislation, which passed on a bipartisan 331-83 roll call. Kirk, Jackson, Rush and Gutierrez were among 18 congressmen who didn’t vote on the legislation.

Now, Alexi cannot say it, but the rest of us can-if the Republican Party wants to suggest the work habits of those three are the standard to be held up against, they need to work on those standards.