WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS ? LESS THAN THERE WAS YESTERDAY

Ever since Thomas Frank's book became one of the biggest political best-sellers of our time, everyone has been looking for something good about Kansas. Well, yesterday's KANSAS CITY STAR found something. In the unlikely event that you missed your STAR yesterday, Jim Sullinger's article announces what will surely be the beginning of a national trend, a Republican politician jumping from the sinking, stinking SS GOP.

Yesterday morning Johnson County District Attorney Paul Morrison announced he's challenging political hack/incumbent Attorney General Phill Kline for Kansas attorney general next year. And Morrison switched parties to do so. He said it is time to put the office of attorney general in the hands of a prosecutor and not a politician. Explaining that there isn't a Democratic or Republican way to prosecute a case, Morrison said he believes the focus of the Democratic Party in Kansas is better on the issue of public safety.

He had hardly made his announcement before Kline's GOP smear machine was out doing its thing, laughably calling 17 year D.A. Morrison-- who has a 98% conviction rate-- "soft on crime." Morrison's switch was not something anyone was expecting but many Republican politicians are reading the writing on the wall as they watch Bush's and the GOP congress' approval ratings heading for uncharted territory.