Republican Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk, deep in a tough battle for his political life, is making a big deal out of being the lone holdout against the Republican blockade of President Obama's Supreme Court nominee. He's met with Merrick Garland, and made headlines last month when he said Republicans should "man up" and hold hearings on his nomination. Kirk has also decided that it's a far safer bet for him to try to entirely avoid the debacle of being a Republican, and skip the convention this year.

His Democratic opponent Rep. Tammy Duckworth is not impressed, she told Chicago Sun-Times columnist Lynn Sweet.

I asked Duckworth about how Kirk was getting easy good press for bucking the party, and that's when she told me, "I think he is all about smoke and mirrors. He gets a lot of attention for doing nothing. ". . . It's what he does," she added. "What will impact the race will be if he pledges not to vote for [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell unless he holds a hearing" for Garland. I asked Duckworth about Kirk putting some distance between himself and what could well be a chaotic GOP convention. "I think he is trying to distance himself from his entire personal voting record in Washington and the Republican Party," Duckworth said.

That pretty much nails it. Kirk was happy to be a cog in the Republican obstruction machine. He's had moe than five years to break with Mitch McConnell and his fellow Republicans but didn't bother until now, in a tough re-election. Up until now, he didn't particularly care if he was representing his Illinois constituents—or doing McConnell's bidding.

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