Mark Kirk in the BullsEye

Lake County favorite son and US Senate Candidate Mark Kirk picked up some more earned media but probably not the sort he was looking for. Last week Illinois Immigrant Action unveiled some attack ads -- which are reproduced here -- against Kirk. The ads are in Spanish and intended for newspaper and radio. They take issue with Kirk's stance on immigration, which according to their author, advocates "sending condoms to Mexico as a fix to the immigration system."

Being a firm believer that there cannot be too many condoms ever -- regardless of race, creed, color, or national origin -- the ad, for your LakeCountyEye at least, falls on deaf ears. Still, the ad is just clever enough to remind Kirk's FoxNews-echoing base that he is soft on immigration and a proponent of family planning. At the same time it suggests to the reasonable & undecided voters who will be his margin of victory or defeat in Nov 2010 (and who don't know Kirk from Andy McKenna), that Kirk might be a loose cannon. This is not something that ought to unduly concern team-Kirk, though. The ads are targeted at Spanish speakers, who probably won't be voting for Kirk anyways in either the primary or the general election.

Now, an attack ad that isn't seen by anyone except the target's opponents is the political equivalent of a tree falling in a forest that no one hears. It doesn't exist. This slippery distinction must have been lost on team-Kirk, because Kirk lawyers jumped the gun and discharged a threatening letter to Univision Radio to pull the ads. (The CapitolFaxBlog has a copy.) Given that no one, including the MSM, was paying much attention to the ads, an action like this all but ensures they are now.

The letter points a finger at the ad's wording: the ad says that Kirk advocates the use of condoms as a solution to illegal immigration, but in fact Kirk never used the specific term. However Kirk's legal guns may be ignorant of a Reuters story about a 2007 Foreign Aid Bill:

Kirk, who attended college in Mexico and holds a master's degree from the London School of Economics, may have offered an idea that might appeal to some fiscal conservatives. Shipping condoms to the poor in Mexico could be cheaper than the multibillion-dollar fence being constructed along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Lawmaker urges condoms for border control

The bill, HR 2764, which Kirk laudably voted for, removes the Bush era barrier on contraceptives and condoms with regard to foreign aid.

Technically speaking, Kirk may never have uttered the word condom. Politically speaking, perception is everything. Your LakeCountyEye thinks the meme may be out of the toothpaste tube.