In Video, Kirk Urges Action on Illinois Credit Rating

Illinois U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk has released a video about the recent downgrade of the state’s credit rating. It’s the first video the Republican senator has released that isn’t about his recovery from the stroke he suffered earlier this year.

Kirk’s office has put on the internet produced videos of the senator’s recovery showing him walking on a treadmill or talking with doctors.

His most recent video, however, had a much different tone.

"The issue of pension reform continues to be a dark cloud over Springfield," a television news broadcaster is heard saying on the video with ominous music playing in the background.

The intensely grim minute-and-a-half-long video takes issue with Illinois’ recent credit downgrade, since legislators haven’t voted on the state’s vastly unfunded pension obligation.

At the end of the video, Kirk appears in an office and talks to the camera.

"Everyone inside the borders of Illinois is disadvantaged by these higher interest costs because of poor debt management by our state," he said.

Meantime, Kirk’s fellow Illinois U.S. Senator, Democrat Dick Durbin, said at an unrelated news conference Tuesday that he talks regularly with Kirk, but hasn't seen him in person. Durbin said Kirk is champing at the bit to get back to the Senate.

Kirk has not appeared in public since his stroke in January.