On April 24, Kansas pro-life U.S. Sens. Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts issued a press release endorsing Steve Howe for Johnson County district attorney.
The release called the position an "open seat."
It is not.
Phill Kline is currently the appointed district attorney and has been urged to reconsider his decision not to run to retain his seat in November.
Why? Kline is the only DA in the country with a pending criminal case against a Planned Parenthood and is likely the only DA in the country with the intestinal fortitude to stick with such an investigation.
Kline has filed 107 charges against Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, which operates an abortion mill in his county, for illegal late-term and minor abortions and fraudulent documentation.
Brownback knows pro-lifers are encouraging Kline to stay. He knows because many influential pro-lifers called him and asked him to wait for Kline to decide before endorsing. There was no hurry. The filing deadline is still over a month away, June 10.
But Brownback, known as a stalwart pro-lifer not only in Kansas but across the U.S. after his recent run for president, endorsed Howe anyway.
Is Howe pro-life? He is Catholic, although that can mean nothing in politics these days. He has attended recent area pro-life banquets.
But Howe refused to sign a petition to launch a grand jury investigation against Planned Parenthood in his own county. And influential pro-aborts like former Kansas U.S. Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker are backing his candidacy. The co-chair of Howe's campaign, Greg Musil, is pro-abortion.
There is no explanation for pro-aborts to support Howe other than they expect him to drop Kline's investigation.
Kline's case has been dragged into its fifth year by Planned Parenthood and its accomplices in Kansas government, led by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and her handpicked Supreme Court majority. They first tried to stop the formidable Kline and have now resorted simply to trying to stall the investigation until his term ends in November.
Howe worked 13 years for Kline's DA predecessor, Paul Morrison, who went on to switch parties, run against Kline for attorney general, and beat him. Morrison has since resigned due to a sex scandal.
In a saga stranger than fiction, Republicans chose Kline over Howe to replace Morrison as DA.
Against that backdrop, pro-life eyes are now on Brownback because he is widely expected to run for governor in 2010, a spot made all the more inviting because Sebelius is term-limited.
The question is whose help does Brownback want?
RINOS and hacks want the Planned Parenthood investigation ended. They fear a run by Kline will stir more Democrats to vote than might otherwise.
They also consider the Johnson County DA position a launching pad to a bigger and better thing: The AG's office.
Was Brownback enticed to support Howe for a promise of support in his gubernatorial bid by non-conservative Republicans?
Or perhaps he fears sharing the ticket with Kline in 2010?
Last Thursday a group of Kansas pro-life leaders paid Brownback a surprise visit in his Washington, D.C., office. Brownback was obligated to receive them after inadvertently walking by the windowed room in which they waited.
The ladies discussed with Brownback the ramifications to the pro-life movement of his endorsing a DA candidate who would likely ignore Kansas law as it applies to the abortion industry. And the Planned Parenthood case is very close to breaking wide open.
The ladies reminded Brownback his pro-life convictions were what elicited their loyalty and support that got him elected. Why work for a pro-life candidate who does not perform like a pro-life elected official? They asked him to reconsider his endorsement if Kline gets in the race. He did not commit.
Over the weekend, the Howe campaign called the ladies and accused them of being "mean" to Brownback. (How did the campaign know?) Get real. Do Howe and Brownback think this is junior high?
Maybe so: I called both Brownback and Howe's press offices for comment and neither returned my call.
Brownback needs to stand with Kline, who has been taking hits for five years straight like no other for simply trying to enforce Kansas abortion law.
Excuse me – there are others who have been taking worse hits, minor girls being raped and late-term babies being torn limb from limb.
Influential Republicans could solve their dilemma by making some calls to get Kline's case to proceed.
If Kline's investigation were freed up, talk of his running for DA wouldn't even be an issue.
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