As Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline swung into re-election mode Monday, he came out swinging. It may not have been directly at the criticisms by Paul Morrison, the longtime Johnson County district attorney and recent Democrat. But he and his supporters were clear enough to convey the message that Kansans will be hearing from the Kline camp from now to November — that Morrison is a political opportunist who didn’t help the effort to pass “Jessica’s Law” cracking down on child molesters and, therefore, can be painted as soft on crime. Of course, as records go, Kline has one ripe for scrutiny, from the abortion clinic files case to the teen-sex reporting case. It should be a lively debate that focuses on what Kansans want in a top cop.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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20 Comments
The difference between the two is Morrison has prosecuted people under the laws of this state. Kline has been prosecuting people under the laws of the Bible. Both have convictions and both stand by their convictions. Morrison as a prosecutor and Kline as a member of the Religious Right. As to a preacher I would not want Morrison, as to a state attorney general I would.
I still think that Kline is a tough cat to beat. Morrison will not have it easy. Kline is an excellent campaigner and a dynamic speaker.
I haven’t heard Morrison or know much about him, so I can’t talk about his side at the moment. But I’m sure I’ll get to know him as election time comes due.
Sad that being an “excellent campaigner and a dynamic speaker” is what gets someone elected to office, not their common sense or the success and effectiveness of their work.Kline is a moron who lives in an ivory tower along with the rest of those who don’t have a clue as to the reality of the world.
I don’t care if Homer Simpson runs agains Kline…I’m voting for Homer.
D’OH!
Joe makes a good point – this is an example of the Peter Principle in action. It takes a good campaigner to get elected; it doesn’t matter how incompetant at doing the ultimate job.
Ben
Campaign promises must all be made under oath. Then when, not if, they start lying, out come the Leg-Irons, and off it is to Gitmo.
Kline caught BTK, if my eyes didn’t deceive me at the police press conference. No way he loses.
Does Lt. Landwehr know that AG Kline caught BTK?
I think your eyes deceived you. Kline was, at best, a bit player in that.
Kline sure tried to suck up all the credit at that BTK Dog & Pony Show. Didn’t he annoint himself?
Kline? It looked like Nolla Foulston caught BTK. ;)
I won’t disagree. It was the end of a long and disgusting period of time that finally ended with a monster being caught, and rightfully so. I thought that much of that News Conference was over the top, but of course, I’m on the outside looking in.
I really thought it was the WPD that caught BTK…..not Foulston or sespecially Kline.
Yeah…..I guess I should have known some wouldn’t recognize irony and sarcasm.
1. BTK caught BTK by being an idiot and sending a computer disk – and generally being a media whore
2. PK is a media whore in his own right.
3. PK could not try his way out of a paperbag. Morrison has years of experience in fighting crime.
4. Morrison may not have been at the capital every day fighting for Jessica’s law but that’s only because he was in the courtroom fighting crime right now. (also see #3)
Actually, in my opinion, BTK surrendered. If you noticed, BTK had previously delivered the word puzzle which contained many horrendous words and descriptions. Anyone can xerox the puzzle out of Robert Beattie’s book, NIGHTMARE IN WICHITA, and search for the words and phrases.
The puzzle contains lots of information that BTK apparently wanted to make public. This included his name, address, “Park City”, some telephone numbers, X’s for each of his victims, etc. So, in my opinion, he was ready to surrender to authorities and end the masquerade.
Also, remember BTK officed for years with the Park City police department. He had a police scanner in his possession and sometimes carried a weapon. He was virtually a police officer without the uniform.
I now believe I chased BTK off my neighbor’s porch in Wichita late one night perhaps a year or so before he was captured. The fellow identified himself as an animal control officer. I told him I didn’t believe him and to vamoose. Robert Beattie, the author, told me it was quite possibly BTK.
About two weeks before BTK surrendered, a number of other amateur “detectives” and I visited WSU to examine student directories of the 1970’s for clues. I then used a method of crossing lines from points of his then most recent known contact locations on a Wichita map. As I recall, they crossed almost on top of his house. A few days before BTK was picked up, I was searching at 61st and Broadway (about two blocks from BTK’s house) and, coincidentally, had lunch at BTK’s table at Leeker’s grocery store on North Broadway in Park City (BTK wasn’t there as far as I know.)
BTK’s neighbors think BTK knew he was about to be picked up by police a day or so earlier because he seemed to spend a lot of time waiting at the Quik Trip near his home in Park City.
However, I don’t recall seeing Attorney General Phill Kline in that area searching for BTK.
Maybe Kline was on the golf course with OJ
“Actually, in my opinion, BTK surrendered.”
I think you got that one called, JWink. The reapperance of BTK after all these years and all the clues… and the cops still couldn’t catch him. I thought it looked like he wanted to be caught. I’m surprised he didn’t have to murder someone on the courthouse steps. The BTK news conference was the biggest circle-jerk I’ve seen in a while.
I missed the news conference, so I won’t give an opinion I don’t have. I did read Nightmare in Wichita, and Lt. Landwehr spoke to a group I belong to a couple of years or more before BTK re-emerged. I also knew some of the cops who worked on the case over the years. I read the listing of those involved in the back of the book, and it was good to find out where they are now and what they’re doing.
There’s a term a few of my writer friends and I have coined over time. It’s called FFTT Syndrome. Forest For The Trees, meaning you’re too close to something to see the whole picture. For us, it’s being too objective (and negative and picky) about our own work to see it clearly. I think that could easily happen in a police department that has been searching for someone as long and hard as the WPD searched for BTK. It was all a game for him when it came to being caught, and he continued it up until the time he was. Did he hope to be caught? Perhaps in some dark recess of what most of us would call a soul, he did, and maybe it was a relief when he was. And maybe we’ll never know.