The general election is still nine months away, but newly-crowned U.S. Senate nominees Alexi Giannoulias and Mark Kirk wasted no time slamming each other in interviews with local media this morning.

At a closed General Electric appliances factory in Cicero, Giannoulias blamed the the plant closure on failed initiatives supported by Kirk in Washington. On WFLD's Good Day Chicago this morning, he also criticized the North Shore Republican for voting in favor of all of President Bush's deficit-busting budgets. Watch the interview below:

Kirk was equally feisty, telling the same Good Day Chicago crew that Giannoulias and his family had "looted" Broadway Bank before "leaving depositers holding the bag." Watch it: