Kansas Politics: Bad call by Paul Morrison

By Diane Silver

I like Paul Morrison. I think he'll make a much better attorney general than Phill Kline. Morrison actually has the experience, and the character to do the job.

However, I agree with Rhonda Holman at the Wichita Eagle's blog. Morrison's campaign did go too far in a recent TV commercial.

Holman wrote:

But Paul Morrison, the Democratic candidate for attorney general, overdid it with his television ad about Kline's hiring of Bryan Brown to be the office's consumer protection chief. The ad's mug shot and portentous text would lead many voters to conclude that Brown's 12 arrests were for violent felonies

Brown's arrests were for anti-choice protests.

I think anti-choice protestors are awful, but I also believe in the right to protest. I've never equated getting arrested, for example, for an anti-war protest with being a felon. If I have the right to protest from the left wing and possibly get arrested and not be seen as a dangerous criminal, then the same has to go for the right wing of our lovely country.

There are so many questions one can raise about Kline that a campaign doesn't have to stretch to do that.

I've worked on campaigns, I know the temptation to go a bit far, but it's always a bad idea. At the very least, it undermines your own credibility.