GOP Rep. Mark Kirk is all in a tizzy about the newest TV ad coming from Democrat challenger Dan Seals' camp. The video features Caleb Davis -- an Iraq vet from Peoria -- making the case that the incumbent Republican sent troops to war irresponsibly and didn't care for them when they returned from battle. Watch it here:

Rather than take on the message of the ad -- which he can't be too thrilled about -- Kirk has opted to go after the messenger, highlighting a Peoria Journal Star report that Davis wore a black T-shirt proclaiming "Investigate 9/11@911truth.org" to an event at a Peoria library. For those who don't know, the "9/11 truthers" theorize that the American government was complicit in the terrorist attack.  However, Davis denies any involvement in the movement.  From his statement in response to the controversy, sent to us by the Seals campaign:

"I am not a member of this organization, nor have I ever been. I attended an event because I was sent by my government to fight in a war that was based on lies, including the lie that Iraq was involved in the 9/11 attacks.  Let me set the record straight, I believe that America was attacked by Al Qaeda terrorists on 9/11.

Kirk first sent a letter demanding Seals take down the ad. "I am disappointed," he wrote Monday, "that you would center your campaign on a spokesman who believes the U.S. government murdered nearly 3,000 of its own citizens." And appearing today on WLS' Don Wade & Roma In The Morning, he went so far as to entertain the possibility that Seals himself holds such views. Listen here:

Internal mp3

DON WADE: Does Dan Seals endorse that view that this was a conspiracy by the United States government to blow up the Twin Towers and --

ROMA: Murder 3,000 of its own citizens?

KIRK: We don’t know. I think all we can say is he's very tolerant of those views because he puts a 9/11 conspiracy theorist as the center of his campaign spokesman and then when we told him everything about this guy, he’s now standing behind him.

"We don't know" if Seals believes that the U.S. government is responsible for 9/11?  That's ludicrous, as Kirk very well knows. It's also reminiscent of Republican Senate candidate Steve Sauerberg, who recently said that he has "no idea" if Sen. Dick Durbin is patriotic.