Fare-thee-well, Phill

David Weigel | August 6, 2008

Kansas held state primaries yesterday and voters marched to the polls to end the career of Phill Kline. Why should you give a damn? In 2002, he was elected state attorney general in a squeaker election and promptly started suing abortion clinics, demanding the medical records of patients. In 2006, the Republican district attorney of Johnson County switched parties to run against Kline, and crushed him. (Kline appealed to local churches to give him info on their members to help him get out the vote.) After the election, the Johnson GOP appointed Kline as the new Johnson County DA. Kline promptly started suing abortion clinics again, bringing 107 charges against Planned Parenthood, travelling the country (I met him in D.C. this year) to drum up support for a new war on abortion.

Yesterday, Kline lost again.

“I’ve been so honored in many ways,” Kline said. “…There are some causes that are worth losing for, and in that there is no defeat.”

Kline said that people “in this community see me in a single dimension, so there was a hurdle to overcome, and we just couldn’t get over it.”

Some insult to injury: Conservative former Rep. Jim Ryun lost the Republican primary for his old House seat in the state's second district to pro-choicer Lynn Jenkins.

Less impactful, but still fun in the whole embarrassment-to-public-service-getting-flushed-down-the-john way: Georgia Democrats rejected DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones as their Senate candidate in the (quixotic) race against legendary war hero Sen. Saxby Chambliss. It's bittersweet. Jones is one of the funnier political animals out there. Unintentionally.