Republican Senator Mark Kirk is widely expected to lose his bid for re-election against Representative Tammy Duckworth, even as he distances himself from Donald Trump. Chicago Tribune:

Kirk has spent months distancing himself from Trump after initially saying in March that he "certainly would" support Trump if he won the GOP nomination. Kirk at one point contended Trump could be a "net benefit" for his Senate campaign and said that as president, Trump would need his "steady conservative hand" in the Senate.

But in April, Kirk said he would not attend the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. And a month ago, Kirk said he would not support Trump for president, having concluded the onetime reality TV star "has not demonstrated the temperament necessary to assume the greatest office in the world."

Kirk's turnabout came shortly after Duckworth accused Kirk of being "complicit" in a Trump campaign of "hate and division" because of his silence over Trump's ethnicity-based criticism of a federal judge.

And Mark Kirk is doing something really, really weird instead of voting Trump. He wants to write-in admitted leaker of classified information David Petraeus. The guy who knowingly leaked classified information to his biographer mistress. That guy. For President.

I feel bad that Mark Kirk had a debilitating stroke during his term in office. But before that stroke he was accusing Barack Obama of wanting Iran to have nukes, and suggesting white people "drive faster" through black neighborhoods because of the, ya know, danger.

I'll be voting for Tammy Duckworth in November.