Controversy Stirs Around Seating Mark Kirk Ahead of Schedule

By aaroncynic in News on Nov 10, 2010 7:40PM

Conservative media outlets began drumming up outrage yesterday over Senate Elect Mark Kirk’s lame duck session scheduled to begin in Congress at the end of November. According to an AP report, Kirk won’t be seated in time for the start of the lame duck session of Congress because the paperwork officially declaring him senator won’t be delivered until November 29th. Already, a website has been created to “save us” from the lame duck session and various media outlets have penned scathing editorials.

While it would be shameful if a paperwork snafu kept Senator Kirk out of office, Rich Miller at Capitol Fax points out this controversy is based on flawed reporting. Miller reminds us that the State Board of Elections plans to certify on November 23rd, a day ahead of the schedule a judge set in July. In addition, Secretary of State Jesse White’s office said they were misquoted by the AP and they intend to process the paperwork immediately and get it to Washington.

In other words, the GOP is in a tizzy that Mark Kirk will be seated on schedule, in the manner the State Board of Elections laid out well before the election. Even Newt Gingrich got on the action, calling on President Obama to intervene and pressure the Democratic Party to “act honorably” and seat Kirk ahead of schedule. We wonder how hard they would be fighting to delay Alexi, had he been the one waiting for a seat.