a win for his district!

There's a scene in the "Election Day, Part 2" episode of "The West Wing", from the final season, where the election results are beginning to come in. President Bartlet's son-in-law, a sleazeball to put it politely, is running for Congress from his district in New Hampshire.

The staffers are standing around, and the result comes in that said son-in-law has lost. One staffer asks "how is the media playing this, as a loss for Bartlet?" And a second staffer replies "no, I think they're playing it as a win for his (the son-in-law's) district".

A win for his district.

That's exactly what Johnson County got last night. A win for common sense, a win for credible prosection of legitimate criminal activity, a win for all that is good and decent in this world.

A win for our district.

Because last night, for the second time in 20 months, a proven, veteran, legitimate prosecutor, rolled to a 20 plus point victory and kicked Phill Kline out of office.

This time, let's hope Mr. Kline gets the message that we, the electorate, the people that Mr. Kline is supposed to protect to the fullest extent of the law, let's hope he gets the message we are sending him.

A simple, two word message.

Go Away.

It is no secret that I am not what you would call a "social conservative". It also is no secret that I despise Phill Kline. I was cautiously optimistic that Mr. Kline's reign of error would end last night. But not even I had this much faith in my fellow voters.

To defeat this fudger of facts, this power-mad prosecutor, this shady opportunist, for a second time in 20 months, by 20 plus points? Despite (literally) millions of dollars pouring in for Mr. Kline from people with no viable interests in Johnson County? This is ... truly, its a win for the district.

Mr. Kline made three key promises when he lobbied to be appointed to the job he was voted out of last night. First, he promised gullible Republican precinct leaders he would not seek re-election when he was appointed last December to fill the DA's seat. A seat whose current occupant had just defeated him 65-35 statewide, and nearly 70-30 in Johnson County. Secondly, he promised he would not rock the boat and overhaul the prosecutor's office, because he was fulfilling someone else's term. And finally, he promised that he would never compromise and settle for guilty verdicts in heinous crimes, but rather would seek the death penalty and pursue every legal avenue available against those accused of unspeakable acts against our fellow citizens (a direct pot shot at Mr. Morrison's credible handling of the Ali Kemp murder trial).

The Republican precinct leaders, either due to blind faith or a sh*tload of Jim Jones fueled-Kool Aid, accepted Mr. Kline at his word, and gave him and his followers what they wanted: the last two years of Mr. Morrison's term.

20 months after Mr. Kline's appointment, what did we, his constituents, get out of the deal? We got a politically-motivated prosecution of Planned Parenthood, a prosecution more than 3 years, 2 jurisdictions, and 1 higher court tossing out all charges filed due to lack of credibility, in the making. We got misfiled court documents in the biggest case Mr. Kline faced, the prosecution of Kelsey Smith's killer. We got article after op-ed after FOX News piece that made our county, our home, look like the laughing stock of Kansas. And to be fair, that is a very difficult thing to do, there are PLENTY of areas in this reddest of red states that are an abject embarrassment.

But most of all, we got broken promises. Everything Mr. Kline sold to the Republican precinct committee members? Every promise, vow, guarantee he made regarding how he would conduct himself in office? Well, I believe we have attempted to impeach sitting Presidents for lying about less than Mr. Kline did.

Promise number two to the precinct members was broken literally 45 minutes after Mr. Kline took office, when he fired 8 veteran long-term, competent prosecutors and replaced them with less-qualified, less-experienced cronies who had served with him in Topeka.

(Proving that there is a God, one of those 8, Steve Howe, was the victor over Mr. Kline yesterday.)

His third promise was tossed aside a few weeks ago, when Mr. Kline opted to accept a plea from Edwin Hall, the accused killer of Kelsey Smith.

(In Mr. Kline's defense, I agreed with his judgment in accepting a guilty plea, accepting life in prison as a sentence for the crime, and sparing the family of the victim a lengthy, drawn out public spectacle of a trial. However, that just hammers home the point that Mr. Kline never should have made a promise that it made no practical sense to keep, as he did to the Republican leaders last December by promising full prosecution of every heinous crime to the fullest extent of the law. As Barry Switzer would say, don't write checks your ass can't cash, Phill.)

His first promise, though, the pledge he made to not seek re-election, a pledge he likely had to make because it was the only way he could be appointed to the job in the first place ... well let's be fair, anyone who has followed this man's "rise" in politics knew it was a lie the second the words left his lips. Mr. Kline's ambition is so blatantly obvious, its disgusting. This is a man, after all, who has referred to churches as "ATM machines" for his fundraising efforts. With the pending witchhunt ... I mean, prosecution of Planned Parenthood, still on the table, of course Mr. Kline was going to reneg on his promise not to run

Because power hungry people always lie, always mislead, always fudge the truth. Anything to win. The end always justifies the means. Because after all, its all "for the good of the cause, because you're just doing the Lord's work by prosecuting abortion providers.

Here's a thought, Phill. How about doing the people's work? You know, the public that you serve? That you took an oath of office to protect? How about doing our work? If you want to do the Lord's work, wonderful. Find a church in your free time, and volunteer. Don't ask for campaign contributions while you're there either, humble yourself and serve. Or sign up with Habitat for Humanity, or go on a missions or humanitarian relief mission to a third world country. Do something to give back to the community. Do unto the least of these as you would do unto me, in the words of Jesus.

Don't waste taxpayer money, taxpayer time, and taxpayer energy in some stupid crusade to be the first prosecutor since Roe v Wade to prosecute Planned Parenthood. Look it, I'm not here to defend Planned Parenthood. But Phill, buddy, pal ... come on. Do you really believe you're the first evangelical prosecutor in this country since 1973 with a Planned Parenthood under his jurisdiction? And do you really think that if Planned Parenthood violated every local, state, and federal statute in the book, as you allege with your 100 plus charges, that they'd have eluded prosecution in every effing jurisdiction in this country for 35 plus years? Just think about that. What national company could knowingly break the law for 35 plus years and not be prosecuted somewhere?

The answer, obvious to anyone with a brain, is that there was no prosecution, there has been no prosecution ... because there has been no crime. You can argue that abortion is a moral crime, an argument I'll cede to you ... but we don't live in a theocracy Mr. Kline, as much as you might like to wish we do, we don't. We live in a democracy. Where the will of the people, through our elected representatives and the judges they confirm, determine the laws of our land.

And determine who our leaders are that will interpret and enforce those laws. Whose numbers, come January, will thankfully not include you.

A win for his district. Yes, yes it was. What more needs to be said.