It was a détente of sorts, set in a legendary Chicago dive over burgers and a couple of beers. Mark Kirk and Alexi Giannoulias sat across from each other at the Billy Goat Tavern last November, reconciling their differences after their bruising campaign to represent Illinois in the U.S. Senate.

Kirk emerged the victor, dressing the part that afternoon in khakis, a blazer and dress shoes; Giannoulias, seemingly dispirited, wore jeans, a jersey and sneakers. After a close election, one man was on his way to Washington, the other to the purgatory of defeat.

"It was a knife fight in a dark alley," said Kirk, who eked out a win by less than 2 percent of the vote, "and I'm the guy who crawled out."

Nearly seven months into his Senate tenure, Kirk will be the first to tell you that it very well could have been him congratulating Giannoulias at their saloon summit. But his win, however small the margin, largely came to symbolize the 2010 midterms: In an election seen as a rebuke of President Obama, Kirk -- a Republican -- walked away with the president's former Senate seat, handing the White House perhaps its biggest political embarrassment on a night that saw Democrats lose control of the House of Representatives.

Conventional wisdom credited the tea party with this historic Republican takeover, though it seems Kirk's win came despite the right-wing insurgency rather than because of it. It was the tea party, after all, that not only dealt a severe blow to Democrats nationwide but also helped unseat GOP members it found unpalatable -- those like Kirk, who were pejoratively dubbed RINOs, or Republicans In Name Only. A self-described moderate, the 51-year-old Kirk could have easily fallen prey to this purge; instead he handily defeated his tea party-backed opponent in Illinois' Republican primary, ultimately winning in November having never reached out to the influential conservative movement.

Today, the freshman senator has embarked on a high-wire act in which he must satisfy voters in traditionally blue Illinois as the tea party continues to hold considerable clout with Republicans. It's a tricky task in a political system that has grown increasingly polarized, but Kirk is aware of the pitfalls. And as the political firmament begins aligning itself for another presidential campaign, with the GOP scrambling to remedy its ongoing identity crisis, Kirk confidently believes his brand of Rockefeller Republicanism might just become a force to be reckoned with once again.

Simple Slogans, Complicated Politics

Mark Kirk describes himself in a way he hopes will appeal to independent voters -- and even some Democrats -- without unduly alienating the grass roots of his own party.

"I'm a fiscal conservative, a social moderate and a national security hawk," he said in an interview, rattling off what has become a simple slogan to describe the complicated makeup of his politics.

Kirk's views are reminiscent of an erstwhile Illinois, back in the days when it was better known as the Land of Lincoln and not Obama Country -- a state that voted Republican in all but two presidential elections between 1952 and 1988.