Phill Kline used to be Attorney General for Kansas, but lost out to Republican-turned-Democrat Paul Morrison in 2006. While he was AG, he was involved in the humiliation that was creationism and Kansas when the State Board of Education tried to downplay evolution in the science standards. Kline’s involvement was thus:
Also on February 9th [2005], State Attorney General Phill Kline announced during private meetings with the Board’s conservative majority members that he would defend the use of textbook stickers that say evolution is a theory, not a fact. Kline held two meetings, each attended by three members. Sue Gamble, a moderate Board member, said the meetings violated, in spirit, the state’s open-meetings law, which requires meetings of six or more board members be open to the public. Kline denied any violation, saying that discussions that took place were not kept secret. But the topic has already captured the attention of the press, particularly following last month’s ruling in Georgia that such stickers are unconstitutional. One op-ed contributed to the Kansas City Star cautioned that “sticky notes that challenge evolution as not factually based will invite a lawsuit, as they did in Georgia. That would cost the cash-strapped state money to mount a defense.”
One would expect the State AG to understand the idea of unconstitutionality, wouldn’t you?
Ah, but Kline, now a district attorney for Johnson County, has trouble with the law quite a bit. The most recent turn? It appears that he’s not a Johnson County resident:
Law requires that Phil Kline reside in Johnson County, where he serves as DA. If he doesn’t he must “resign or be removed from office.”
After weeks of staking out a crummy apartment–located on top of a storage facility owned by Phil Kline supporters where he pays $400 per month–KCTV5 never once saw Mr. Kline or his wife come home to the apartment.
Then after following Mr. Kline and his wife on camera numerous times from work they found both Phil Kline and his wife driving to Topeka and staying at a residence they own there. His wife also regularly picks up his daughter from a Topeka school and she too stays at the Topeka home with her parents.
Topeka, incidentally, is in Shawnee County, not Johnson County.
Oops! I guess when you spend a lot of time defending the falsehood that is creationism, you get used to bearing false witness. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Hard to say. Maybe Kline can ask Kent Hovind for advice.
Kline has a very skeevy past (google Phill Kline and Bill O’Reilly if you can stomach the results), with lots of shady goings-on. It sounds to me like we may be about to see another creationist (or at least a defender of such) go down in flames. If what they believe is true, then Kline better get used to flames.
Tip o’ the 1940s press fedora to C&L.
November 27th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
See? Stalking is good when done in the public interest. Huzzah, science!
November 27th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
Since I originally hail from Kansas I can tell you that this guys is the quintessential repressed Republican slime ball lawyer/politician you think he is. I kind of hope, at some point, he gets some jail time for something just to teach him some humility.
November 27th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
The Republicans brought this upon themselves. Kline was soundly beaten in his re-election bid for Kansas AG, and was apparently appointed by Republican leaders to the vacant post of DA to Johnson County in hopes that he would be able to continue the battle to close Kansas’s main (only?) abortion clinic.
Indeed he filed over 100 charges against the clinic a few months ago (many of which had already been rejected by the courts when he was AG) so it appears that as long as you are on a righteous crusade, you can flout the law as much as you want or need to.
No doubt he will claim persecution, but all I say is good riddance to bad stuff.
November 27th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
The good news is that this type of Republican wingnut is in the minority (even in Kansas) and many moderate and sensible Republicans are voting with their feet, and are defecting to the Democrats.
I guess that when you can’t get your own house in order, there are few alternatives left available to you.
November 27th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Yup, that’s my wacky state!
November 27th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
I was very happy to see the back of him as AG, living in southern Kansas myself. Not that I can exactly throw my full support (‘cos the support of a non-citizen programmer in Kansas menas amazingly much, right?) behind any other candidates in particular, but anything is a step up from that. Then again, it could be he’s doing a round about favor here. If he was around 2/3s as slimey, no one would have noticed. Now they do to a large degree and it looks like future candidates (not just for AG but in general) will have to get used to acting under a little more scrutiny. It’s not quite the good ol’ boys club anymore, not all the way through. Meetings are no longer just attended by four people with some sort of reason to speak and some freshman doing a school project. I’m not sure if reporters crying “there’s scandals in them hills” is the best way to solve it but it’s sure better then no one noticing at all so that’ll do fine to start with.
November 28th, 2007 at 12:25 am
As I mentioned a few days ago, support for creationism among Republican insiders and candidates is very much a naked emperor cult. They know it is hogwash (they are lawyers and real-world business types after all) but they cannot say so for fear of alienating a sizable chunk of their voter base.
It is not hard to imagine the corrosive effect this pervasive hypocrisy would have on ethics in general.
I really have to wonder about the creationist rank and file as well. At times I have entertained the notion that literally nobody actually believes in it, they just pretend to because everyone else in their social circle does. In truth, some of them probably are serious but my own opinion, and frequent observation, is that the really noisy elements of the religious right have a hidden agenda.
November 28th, 2007 at 1:29 am
Law, shmaw.
Laws only apply to Democrats.
Just how many Republicans are actually doing time for their transgressions?
I can only think of one (Randall Cunningham). The rest just resign or they get pardoned before setting foot in prison.
And then they get new jobs in right-wing “think-tanks”, effectively living on the charity of rich Republicans.
I could describe this process in more detail, but my wife gets upset when I send my blood-pressure soaring like that. I’m too close to a stroke already.
November 28th, 2007 at 4:35 am
And then they get new jobs in right-wing “think-tanksâ€, effectively living on the charity of rich Republicans.
=========
No doubt a portion of the $8 Billion+ missing from Iraq are certainly helping the effort.
November 28th, 2007 at 9:13 am
I am sooooooo ashamed of my home state. For what it’s worth, for every Phil Kline/Phelps family, there are about a dozen intelligent Kansans floating around out here.
November 28th, 2007 at 10:51 am
> For what it’s worth, for every Phil Kline/Phelps family, there are about a dozen intelligent Kansans floating around out here.
So there’s about two dozen intelligent Kansans (Kansasians? Kansasi? Kansasese?) in total?
November 28th, 2007 at 10:57 am
Something funny is that theory in that sense essencially means “explanation of a fact”.
So they should say that the theory of evolution isn’t a fact, but an explanation of a fact. Or that the theory of evolution isn’t evolution, but an explanation of evolution.
November 28th, 2007 at 11:06 am
>”Laws only apply to Democrats.”
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! Oh, to live in such a simple and monochromatic virtual universe. So uncluttered by shades of gray, nuance, substance and basic reality. *sigh*
>”…rich Republicans…”
http://www.heritage.org/Press/Commentary/ed110607a.cfm
>”Just how many Republicans are actually doing time for their transgressions? I can only think of one.”
Therefore none others exist!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/19/AR2007011900162.html
Took all of seven seconds with google. Fun fact: Robert Ney is sharing cell space with Ritchard Hatch of “Survivor” fame.
As for Democrats, I have a security clearance, and if I did what Sandy Berger did, *I’d* get a fine AND prison time. *HE* gets to work for the Hillary Clinton campaign (which does not speak well for her judgment, BTW).
You people who try to claim some major difference in the corruption levels of the two major parties amuse me to no end.
>”I could describe this process in more detail, but my wife gets upset when I send my blood-pressure soaring like that.”
So don’t take it all so seriously. It’s not like you can do anything about any of it.
>”I’m too close to a stroke already.”
Don’t worry! The Democrats will save you!
November 28th, 2007 at 11:33 am
Sandy Berger committed a crime and got away with it, therefore Democrats are as corrupt as Republicans! QED, mf’er! Way to represent the Logic Army!
November 28th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
The nut of Quiet_Desperation’s Heritage Foundation article is this: “Democrats represent areas with a high concentration of wealthy households. ”
Roughly sixty seconds* of reflection will tell you this report says nothing about the demographics of Democratic vs. Republican voters, contributors, party members, or leadership.
*I’m being generous.
November 28th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
The irony of the election was the bizzarre exchange of jobs between Paul Morrison (former Johnson County DA) and Klien.
Within a couple months of taking office as Johnson County DA, Klien dismissed all the top lawers due to their affiliation with Morrison (of course he wont admit thats the real reason).
KCTV5′s investigative reporting was good but it’s hard to imagine anything coming out of this.
Klien is a slimeball plain and simple.
I’d say the ratio of intelligent Kansans is about the same as anywhere else – roughly 10% of the population.
November 28th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
As the Onion once pointed out, the stickers should probably just read “Do Not Burn.”
November 28th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
> As the Onion once pointed out, the stickers should probably just read “Do Not Burn.â€
Well, they probably have stickers like that here in Leftcoastistan. “Do Not Burn: By Proposition 69, The Publishers must Disclose that this Book Contains Materials that have been Found by the State of California to Cause Cancer.”
Which, going by the number of P69 signs, is nigh everything.
November 28th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
Seems like Kline’s plan wasn’t very ‘intelligently designed.’
November 29th, 2007 at 9:51 am
>”Sandy Berger committed a crime and got away with it, therefore Democrats are as corrupt as Republicans! QED, mf’er! Way to represent the Logic Army!”
and
>”Roughly sixty seconds* of reflection will tell you this report says nothing about the demographics of Democratic vs. Republican voters, contributors, party members, or leadership.”
Can’t you tell I was just trying to yank the guy’s chain? Geez. One way to tweak those that traffic in logical fallacies is to drop bigger, better logical fallacies on them.
Cheer up, folks. The holidays are nearly upon us, and we have the whole “war of Christmas” controversy to laugh at.
November 29th, 2007 at 9:52 am
Or rather “war ON Christmas” controversy.
Watch your favorite Fox News affiliate for details.
December 2nd, 2007 at 7:45 am
> For what it’s worth, for every Phil Kline/Phelps family, there are about a dozen intelligent Kansans floating around out here.
>So there’s about two dozen intelligent Kansans (Kansasians? Kansasi? >Kansasese?) in total?
I am so tired of this Kansas bashing. We got rid of the creationism crap in the Board of Education not once, but TWICE. It didn’t have to go to trial like in Dover, it didn’t cost millions of tax payers dollars. All it took were elections and we ousted the morons. Sure they will sneak in again, but we Kansans will drum them out again as sure as the wheat and corn grow here..
We got rid of Kline (I still have the “Vote for Morrison” sign in my garage) and fortunately don’t live in Johnson county.
Kansans should be congratulated not vilified, Centipede. I don’t understand why we are still stereotyped as idiots, and places like Pennsylvania, with Dover and all, aren’t. I’m tired of this “even in Kansas” crap when we have cut down the creationist at every turn. Who followed Klien to see where he lived? Californians???
I am not embarrassed of my state, but damn proud of it.
December 3rd, 2007 at 1:21 pm
Geez, lighten up.
There is one Phil Kline.
There is one Phelps Family.
There are therefore two dozen intelligent Kansasese, using the 12:1 ratio developed by someone other than me.
It’s a combination of a ratio joke and a semantics joke, not a dig on Kansas. If I wanted to dig on Kansas, I’d bring up how it’s been mathematically proven to be topologically flatter than a pancake.
December 4th, 2007 at 3:29 am
Which is also a urban myth, Illinois is flatter then Kansas…
And no I won’t lighten up, it’s not YOU that’s being vilified and being called a bunch of idiots when ID hasn’t even had to go to court here and waste taxpayers money.
And congratulations for falling for another urban myth, the mathematically proven to be topologically flatter then a pancake…
http://www.delsjourney.com/close-ups/us/best_worst/best_and_worst_states.htm
http://www.geotimes.org/oct03/NN_pancake.html
““Everything on Earth is flatter than the pancake as they measured it,†says Lee Allison, head of the Kansas Geological Survey — including the Rocky Mountains, the Marianas Trench, Mt. Everest and the Tibetan Plateau. The team, Allison says, measured a “pancake plateau†that included the sides of the pancake.”
You are on a roll, want to claim that Kansas is Black and White now?
December 4th, 2007 at 3:37 am
Forgot to mention that best and worst state site doesn’t even mention Kansas it their “f latest roads” list…
Delaware, Louisiana, Illinois, and Florida are all flatter… Kansas starts at 580 feet and goes to 4000 feet, how is that flat??? pfffft.
December 13th, 2007 at 8:51 am
And you are going to be posting a similarly scathing article about Morrison’s behavior when?
April 8th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Testing bulleted lists
List should be closed…
April 8th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Test two of bullet list
Bullet list is closed?
April 8th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
@ Todd W.,
I’ve tried that bullet (HTML tag) business myself; it doesn’t work here for some reason.