Paul Morrison’s win over Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline was part of a Tuesday tide for such races, which saw Democrats pick up two attorneys general offices for a total 31. It’s highly unusual for incumbent attorneys general to lose re-election. The Web site Stateline.org made an excellent point that Kline didn’t emphasize enough in his campaign: “The nature of the office — locking up bad guys, going after corrupt businesses and alerting consumers to fraud — generates a steady stream of positive news for incumbents to campaign on.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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18 Comments
Not much to say about this subject anymore. Kline is history as are his lackeys. Time to get down to doing the work of the people.
Like Randy Scholfield says in his OpEd piece today, Kline was by his own admission more committed to a cause than to his office. Most Americans find this scary. In fact, Kline lost because he was willing to go uber-negative on Morrison — over ideology — rather than tout his own considerable accomplishments in office here in the reality-based world. The guy was and has long been unhinged, clearly.
In fact, I wonder how many other winning Dem AG’s framed their opponent as some flavor of a Phill Kline wannabe.
The spotlight will be on Mr. Morrison as he takes over. Will he continue to prosecute the investigation into the possible violations of the law by Tiller et al, for failing to report underage abortions and thus protect those who perpetrate child rape and incest?
This will be a test of integrity for Mr. Morrison, since many of his political contributors want him to ignore the violations. Not to mention the fact his campaign ads disingenuously claimed violations of medical records privacy.
By continuing aggressively forward with the probe, he can demonstrate that he is a true, respectable law enforcement professional and not a political hack.
It wasn’t that Kline didn’t emphasize things in his campaign.. Its that he had Morrison attacked and smeared constantly.. Kansans will not stand for that kind of filth.
And the election proves my point.
Kline couldn’t emphasize it, since he cut back on it. He had bigger fish to fry, thought he could rally the righteous right, and didn’t see their time had come and gone.
“It’s highly unusual for incumbent attorneys general to lose re-election.”
So true. If Kline had been able to high-light accomplishments he would have been re-elected. Spinners like Erik can whine all they want about Morrison or the media but the fact is that Kline self-immolated.
If you had asked me two months ago who would have won the election I would have said Kline would win in a walk. Then came the church memos; followed by GOP stalwarts abandoning his campaign. Bob Stephan in particular. The wheels fell off of Kline’s campaign; he has nobody to blame for that but himself.
Phill Kline has plenty of time left to bring a charge against Tiller if there is one to be brought. If Kline doesn’t do it in the time left, then Morrison should not be held accountable for it.
I suspect there will be no charges brought, because Klines biggest oopsie was telling O’Reilly that women were getting late-term abortions for depression, which in this state is still legal. If he had a shred of evidence that the doctor wasn’t reporting evidence of child rape, that would have been blasted over the airwaves before the election.
The interesting thing about the abortion cases is that Kline waited so long. If he had some fire to go with the smoke he should have brought it forth long ago. Then he could have run on results; not suppositions.
Dear Republicans,
We kicked your asses!We kicked your asses!Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah!Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah!
So much for Karl Rove’s ‘ten thousand year Reich’–er, I mean, ‘permanent Republican majority.’
CF, that’s so childish.
And I love it.
Ever notice how much SORE LOSERS the republicanTs are???
kind of funny watching their spin.
Hey Rhonda, Ken Melman was outed then announced he is stepping down..Maybe you can have the job? YOu can send them your blog posts for the interview you right wing shill
Pam: I usually don’t comment on your posts but, man you must have a thick pair of far left wing glasses on there darlin’. And saying that Rhonda is a right wing shill is like saying ol’ CF is acting the part of a gracious winner. (see post above)
Morrison is asking Kline to hold off on pursuing the medical records case any further. I don’t think Kline is necessarily obligated to do that.
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/nov/08/morrison_wants_kline_hold_abortion_records/
Morrison has said he will evaluate the case and proceed accordingly after that. It could be there is no case, no matter how much folks like outlander want there to be. It is possible that Morrison will not pursue the case because he is being a principled and competent KS AG, RATHER THAN a POLITICAL HACK/IDEOLOGUE like his predecessor so obviously was.
I think what people are looking for in the Cop is the same thing as the SoS: a competant technician. Note how Thornburg waltzed into re-election. He is running the office and has kept it out of the news. Same with treasurer and insurance commissioner.
Thornburg kept the office out of the news until he arranged for Katherine Harris to the be Kansas Republican of the year. I say he was lucky that stunt did not come back to bite him in the butt.
“the be” = be the
outlander,
I neither care or worry about what you think
I am celebrating the taking of our country back, and just like we were told in 00 and 04 after the elections
YOU LOST GET OVER IT OR LEAVE
Every time there was an event that involved law enforcement “Phony Phil” showed up. Kline was the biggest media hog in the state. When it was announced that BTK was arrested “Phony” was at the news conference hogging the spotlight. To a Wichita police officer, Kline was not liked! They did not like his “I’m in charge” attitude and his chauvenistic ways certainly didn’t garner him any respect with professional women. Kline had one plan and one plan only. That was to play havoc with abortion providers. It was funny to see his daughter shedding tears at his conession. Talk about hogging to the bitter end! That bit of grandstanding took the cake. Good ridance and DON’T come back, Phil Kline!!!