Progress Illinois

As Media Matters documented yesterday, "the conservative media have opened a new front from which to attack President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama's support of Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics: smearing the city as unfit to host the Olympic Games, often by citing individual instances of violence."  Congressional Republicans, meanwhile, have criticized the president for leaving Washington this week for Copenhagen.  All of which led the Plum Line's Greg Sargent to contact GOP Rep. and U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kirk to see where he stands on the bid.  Here's the response his team received:

Kirk campaign aides told our reporter, Amanda Erickson, that they were uncertain of his position and would get back to us with an answer. They have yet to do so.

Kirk voted to secure the Olympics but hasn’t said where he stands on Obama’s trip abroad to make that happen, and the controversy surrounding Obama’s pitch, which the president makes this morning, would seem to put Kirk in a delicate spot.

I suppose it takes longer to reply when, like Kirk, you have to formulate two answers: one for the "narrow interests" of your congressional district and one for the statewide constituency you hope to represent in 2011.