Informative and revisionist at the same time, Stephanie Simon's LA Times bio profile of Kansas AG Phill Kline came out this morning. What comes across is that Kline is a "tornado" of controversy, without any real analysis of what's so controversial. His recent statements defending his improper request for access to abortion records by claiming he is investigating child rape are not even mentioned. Needless to say, neither is his recent comment to the press when he actually described himself as a "religious right wing wacko."
Still and all he's a character, and the press is warming to him. Let's take another peek into the mind of Kline. There's gold below the "fold" as it were.
Update [2005-4-12 16:40:12 by mrblifil]: Check at the bottom to learn about Phill in GQ. You heard me right.
Someone seems to have hooked Phill up with a pretty savvy media consultant, or so it would appear. There is a placid, slightly revisionist tone to the recent coverage from WaPo and now the newly conservative LA Times. All mentions of his truly abhorrent, comic, bizarre tendencies are smoothed and side stepped as if he were just another reasonable guy doing a job, like anybody else.
`Course we know differently don't we? Nevertheless, some interesting anecdotes are shared that spread a little light on the strange personal history and odd mental constructions of our troglodyte friend from across the other side of the aisle.
Most eye opening of course are the rare glimpses of Kline's early years. In an impressive show of journalistic investigative bravado, Steph Simon actually does some digging and bothers to ask around. I know, shocking. Let's start with young Phil's upbringing:
Kline and his four siblings were raised by their single mother in a rough part of Kansas City, Kan.,
"in oh-my-God-lock-the-doors land," according to a longtime friend, state Sen. Phil Journey.
Money was tight. "They struggled and struggled," Journey said. And when Kline's mother got a successful business going -- referring parents to day-care centers -- her children watched in frustration as state bureaucrats burdened her with red tape.
"Oh-my-God-lock-the-doors-land?" What a very...ahem...colorful way to put it. Time to reevaluate a little. Knowing that young Phil was not hermetically shielded from possible interactions with black folk makes me view him in such a more sympathetic light. Unless I am misconstruing Phil Jouney's little idiomatic invention. Simon certainly isn't interested in clarifying WTF he meant. I guess since the story deals with Kansas, we are simply to believe that the statement speaks for itself and needs no "filtering."
But wait, tell me more, it's finally starting to get good, I'm willing to momentarily suspend my urge to slam my fist through a wall in order to understand where Phill is coming from. Sadly:
After answering questions about his policies, Kline said he did not have time to discuss his background.
Shit Phill, I wouldn't want to interrupt your golf schedule. Oh it's all good, though, we've all got plenty of time. We'll just hang here until you drum up some spare time, maybe some Sunday afternoon, after your weekly ritual of fucking a raccoon out behind the woodshed.
And what's with this "state bureaucrats burdened her with red tape?" Was his mother doing something illegal? Was she trying to place kids in religious settings? Was she being paid a commission to do so? LA Times seems not to care about the questions raised by it's own research.
While we're on the subject, was there a dad in this proto-wacko scenario? Does Mr. Family Values stem from a broken home? Is he devoting himself to persecuting women who find themselves in much the same situation as his own mother may have? I can see why Phill may not want to take the time to flesh our the answers to these questions. Maybe we could hook him up to a feeding tube so he wouldn't require meal breaks.
We may never know what the hell was actually going on in young Phill's family (beside the obvious fact that at some point early on he developed his penchant for raccoon fucking), but whatever it was it had a formative effect:
His political philosophy, then and now,
was drawn straight from his own life.
"He really pulled himself up by his bootstraps," Journey said. And Kline expected others to do the same. "He knows not to count on government being there for you because government just seemed to get in the way for his family," Journey said.
At the same time, Kline has said his family's struggles left him determined to help those who cannot help themselves, including unborn children, the mentally ill and developmentally disabled adults.
Sitting tall in a straight-backed chair in his office -- which is decorated with a picture of Abraham Lincoln -- Kline quoted the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. from memory: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
Let's all take a break and take a quick run to the vomitorium and back, shall we? Ah, that feels somewhat better. I'm sure Phill's career is exactly what Dr. King had in mind when he considered the future of whites in law enforcement. Notice no mention still of his proclaimed obsession with child rape. Might be nice if Steph Simon would pull her research standards up along with her bootstraps.
After the obligatory career in early politics section we come to more recent history:
Kline gave up his state House seat in 2000 to run again for Congress. His narrow loss didn't dent his ambition: Two years later, he was running for attorney general.
He campaigned on a promise to crack down on second- and third-trimester abortions, especially those conducted for reasons he considered trivial -- and thus, illegal -- such as a fetus' deformities or genetic abnormalities.
Yes, trivial little deformities like babies whose brains form outside their skulls, or bothersome genetic abnormalities like the kind that lead to nothing more serious than fatality.
But at least his priorities are consistent:
Another campaign focus was chasing child predators off the Internet. "You would be amazed," he said. "There are websites teaching pedophiles how to be pedophiles." Free speech arguments in favor of such sites disgust him: "Parents have the right under the Constitution to protect their children."
No time to answer family questions? But apparently plenty of time to check out pedophile instructional videos. Again the LA Times disappoints by omitting any relevant URLs.
During the contentious 2002 election, Kline's critics pointed out that
the state Bar had suspended his law license three times because he had failed to keep up with continuing education requirements. But Kline remained enormously popular among the social conservatives who increasingly dominated the Kansas GOP.
------------
In 1991, the political landscape tilted when antiabortion protesters staged the "Summer of Mercy" -- months of impassioned, prayerful and at times violent demonstrations.
As the drama played out, conservatives across Kansas "started realizing they weren't alone," said Joseph Aistrup, a professor of political science at Kansas State University. "They started pushing for state policies that reflected their values."
"Summer of Mercy," huh? Gee, sorry I missed it. So finally Phill wins election as AG and sets out to do the real work of the people. And by "the people," I mean the gaybashing ones:
In the fall of 2003, he issued an impassioned defense of a Kansas law that subjected sexually active teens to
much steeper criminal penalties if they were gay.
In a legal brief, Kline argued that the state should punish a boy who had sex with an underage boy more harshly than a boy who had sex with an underage girl because the heterosexual couple might some day marry, and "marriage creates families" -- a desirable outcome for the state.
Treating "same-sex or bestial contact" the same as Romeo and Juliet pairings "will begin a toppling of dominoes which is likely to end with the Kansas marriage law on the scrapheap," he wrote.
"Same-sex or bestial." Nice. We have now reached the point in this diary where Phill's comments no longer require editorial comment. But Stephanie Simon is still charmed:
"The arguments he put into his brief seemed to me not to come out of any legal doctrine, but instead to be designed for the headlines," lawyer James Esseks said.
That's a frequent rap on Kline, who is easy and articulate in front of the cameras, with an athletic build and a clean-cut, forthright face that shows well on TV. Certainly, he likes the big stories.
"Virtually every issue of our day is colliding in the courtroom now," Kline said. "I enjoy that challenge."
Um, Steph, I hate to point it out, but Phill's married with kids, ya know. Perhaps you two could go out behind the woodshed, and get it out of your system. Li'l tip, don't forget the rubbers. And watch out for the raccoons. The injured ones have a nasty nip to `em.
Phill may like the "big stories," but he's a friend of the little guy. Even the little chicken. Brace yourelves:
One afternoon in late February, aides kept rushing into his office for his signature on various documents: a settlement with an unethical cemetery operator; a letter to a dating service accused of preying on the disabled; a complaint against a telemarketer for violating the do-not-call list.
Scanning the pages through smudged glasses, Kline gave each his sober attention -- even a letter from a woman complaining that her city council had forbidden her to keep hens in her yard. "Shucks! So she's going to lose her chickens?" Kline asked.
The matter was a bit beyond his purview, he admitted, but all the same, he signed a letter to the woman's state legislator, asking him to intervene to save the poultry.
I think I just lost my chickens. Maybe if there's a dry section of my barf bag I can wipe away a tear.
In conclusion, Steph Simon takes us back to the global picture:
Those who opposed him when he ran for office say their worst fears have been confirmed. Those who supported him love him more than ever.
For his part, Kline said he considered abortion "a foundational issue, cutting right to who we are as a nation." But he added that his actions as attorney general were rooted in state law, not his personal agenda.
"My job is to enforce the law," he said, "not to engage in civil disobedience."
His actions not rooted in a personal agenda? Oh, heaven forfend the thought. But wait, isn't this the guy whose political values "were drawn straight from his own life" after much energetic bootstrap pulling? Perhaps the boots were lodged near where his lower GI tract meets the light of day.
Well, I consider myself edified. You know the political is always personal, except when it's not. Leastwise that's how Phill Kline sees it. Now you can keep his manly/cuddly image in your mind as he and his merry band of jackboots gang rape protections for women, gays, and teens. And as you barf through the tears, remember the chickens you keep in your yard illegally now have a friend in very high places.
Update [2005-4-12 16:40:12 by mrblifil]: Now I'm sure Phill has a high priced media consultant on the scene. I'd like to know if the Kansas AG's office is paying the fees for this person. Check out Phill's upcoming layout in [GQ Magazine http://www.wibw.com/home/headlines/1463277.html]. I shit you not:
Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline will be featured in an upcoming article in GQ magazine. GQ writer, Andrew Corsello, accompanied Kline as he spoke at the Kiwanas Club yesterday.
Corsello joked that while you won't see Kline gracing the fashion pages, he'll be in an article discussing abortion in Kansas. "The abortion issue is played out as dramatically in Kansas as it is anywhere in the country. You've got Mr. Kline doing what he's doing, and a clinic in Wichita that does more late term-abortions then almost anywhere in the country," says Corsello.
The article will appear in either the July or August edition of the magazine.
Yeah that figures. Whose readers are more actively engaged in the hot button abortion issue than those of...GQ? I feel a letter writing campaign developing. Why is GQ in the business of counting the number of late-term procedures in Kansas and where are they getting their numbers from? Something smells rotten in Denmark.