Kris Kobach is the head of the Kansas GOP, a former Ashcroft acolyte at the federal DOJ and a failed candidate for a Kansas Congressional seat. He’s also launched crusades against giving in-state tuition to the children of illegal immigrants who completed high school in various states and advocated for Hazleton, Pennsylvania’s draconian anti-immigrant ordinances. If we call him a Grandmaster Douchebag, is it news? How about if we said that, as head of the Kansas GOP, he sent an email to supporters bragging about their successful use of semi-illegal tactics to eliminate Democratic voters from the rolls? Would anyone be surprised at that? Yeah, we didn’t really think so but we wanted to make sure. You know, there are some really nice people in Kansas, but I guess they, too, don’t want to run for office. [People for the American Way, Crooks and Liars]

When Paul “Chrome Dome” Morrison (left) beat Phill “I Want Your Medical Records” Kline in the Kansas Attorney General’s race last year, many people in the pro-choice movement breathed a huge sigh of relief. Kline had been running around for years subpoenaing women’s medical records and stuff in his crusade to use current statutes to rid Kansas of abortion. Today, however, some of the women who heralded Morrison’s win last year might be feeling just a little bit sheepish.

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Sam “Brokeback” Brownback is running for president! He’s a senator from somewhere near Iowa. Let’s meet America’s next pretend president! MORE »

If you can’t make it over to Nathans, you can turn on your “web browser” and watch departing SecDef and all-around pariah Donald Rumsfeld deliver his Victory Address to Kansas State University. MORE »

Look, we just can’t do a whole post on every little scandal. We need to focus on the important scandals, such as strangling mistresses and threatening to rape and murder drunk gals in Las Vegas. MORE »

• Congressional approval reaches 16%, lowest in history of WSJ polls. [WSJ]

• What’s the matter with Kansas now? Nine candidates have switched from Republican to Democrat in the last year, many of them leading. [WP]
• Democrats use failures in Iraq to strong effect against Republicans. [NYT]
• New ad targeting black voters and saying Martin Luther King was a Republican has infuriated civil rights leaders. [WP]
• Bob Ney will make it to jail when he gets around to it, for now he’ll collect his $3,176 a week and enjoy the lovely fall weather. [NYT]
• In a speech yesterday at Georgetown, Bill Clinton described differences in the parties, decried the partisan bitterness, and called for a return to olde timey Aristotelian style political debates. [WP, NYT]
• Today, Virginia: Bush/Allen, Clinton/Webb. [WP]

• Second “I had an abortion” campaign launched, first was in ‘72. [Feministing]
• “More and more there is the sinking sensation at the Times that the Internet isn’t Kansas.” [Romenesko]
• 68% of Americans support bringing all troops home by the end of this calendar year or by one year from now. [Eschaton]
• Slutty kid may offend Muslims. [LGF]
• Atlas Shrugs interviews John Bolton: “You remember Godfather, Frank Sinatra, it was supposed to be Frank Sinatra, he’s crying, you’re godfather. Same thing happens, somebody slap him. So how could you have so much faith in the Lebanon government? I mean, I want to believe, John. I believe in you. I want to believe.” [Atlas Shrugs]