Phillll Kline

Just an update on what the ol' Johnson County DA's been up to lately.

If you don't know the story or are outside of KS, here's the story in a nutshell:

Phill Kline ran for and won the race for KS Attorney General in 2002 against Chris Biggs of Junction City, succeeding the relatively uncontrovesial Carla Stovall.

After attaining office, rather than acting with the responsibility one would expect of the State's highest serving law enforcement officer, Kline decided to go on a wild goose chase in Wichita seizing the medical records of abortion clinics and attempting to find records of "illegal late term abortions". (Nothing gets the far right KS base out like good ol' abortion).

In December 2006, he charges George Tiller, a Wichita area abortion provider with 30 misdemeanors, most of them involving charges of performing abortions on minors.

Fortunately, in November 2006, the wise citizens of Kansas decided that they needed an AG who was interested in something besides using the AG's office for purely political purposes and elected Paul Morrison, a Republican-turned Democrat District Attorney of Johnson County KS in a landslide over the now ousted Phill Kline.

But wait, Kline still clung on. Because of local rules, Johnson County Republican chairpersons were able to select Morrison's successor. In a bizzare ploy, they decided on the suddenly available Phill Kline. Ironically, The Johnson Co. DA gets paid more than the KS AG (because it is the wealthiest county in KS), so Kline gets beat and gets a pay raise.

After Morrison gets the AG's office back in order, he discovers that many, if not most of the charges that Kline filed against Dr. Tiller were frivolous, often stemming from files that were for the wrong patients. A spokesperson for Morrison said that Kline engaged in "unethical conduct"

Anyway, that's the story that is well known. Kline says publicly that he is not running for re-election. But from friends and colleagues, theres some pretty annoying stuff going on in the Johnson County DA's office, all of which show that Kline is attempting to rebuild his image as "tough on crime" hinting that he may indeed run.

1) It is my understanding that Johnson County no longer offers diversions on Driving under the Influence charges. I can see how some people (MADD for example) might think this is a great idea. However, the practical result is that now every DUI has to go to trial and be fought tooth and nail. Thus Judicial dockets which used to only be a couple of weeks behind are now a month or more behind. This creates a lot of unnecessary work when KS law allows prosecutors to treat a diverted DUI the same as a conviction in a 2nd proceeding anyway.

2) Additionally, sources say that Kline has instructed his Assistant DA's to comb through existing files and see if there is any reason that they can revoke any diversions which are already on file. People who have done nothing are being dragged back into court in the hopes that the ADA can get them on a technicality or make them retake a U/A or drug screening.

These are the two changes I know about, but I'm sure there are others. I don't think, however, it makes any difference. I just don't see any way that the moderate Republicans in Johnson County will elect him as their DA when given a choice. If he has any future in KS politics, he will need to go out west of Topeka and run for state office again. He might also be ginning up his resume to hook on with some national Republican figure or organization.