Senate Candidate Lied About Navy Award

These are dangerous times for politicians with war records on their resumes. Republican congressman Mark Kirk of Illinois—a Senate candidate for President Obama's old seat—has admitted that his official bio was wrong in declaring that the Navy once gave him the prestigious Intelligence Officer of the Year Award. In fact, his entire unit got a different award for its work during NATO's conflict with Serbia, reports the Washington Post.

"Upon a recent review of my records, I found that an award listed in my official biography was misidentified," Kirk wrote on his blog today. The Post began looking into it when Kirk's Democratic opponent, Alex Giannoulias, called attention to it. Kirk has played up his service as a Reservist in the tight race, and he once stated during a committee hearing flat out that "I was the Navy's Intelligence Officer of the Year." (More candidate stories.)