The Conservative Fool Of The Day is...Phill Kline!

Phillip Kline's biggest claim to infamy is his term as Kansas Attorney General. The Republican was known for his socially conservative activist stances and putting his personal views above the law. The former broadcaster's reign in that office ended when he was defeated for reelection in a smashing landslide last year.

When that happened, however, Johnson County's Republican precinct committee selected Phill Kline as that county's district attorney. I have no idea how a party committee can just appoint a public office for the whole county, but apparently it's a machine-run county - even though Kline lost Johnson County even worse than he lost statewide. Financially, this has turned out to be a windfall for Kline, because the post of Johnson County DA pays a lot more than that of Kansas Attorney General.

Trouble is, in order to be Johnson County DA, you have to sort of, like, live in Johnson County. And Kline didn't live in Johnson County.

For one thing, KCTV-TV in Kansas City discovered that while Kline is making $147,000 a year as DA, he only works an average of 29 hours a week. That doesn't count 6 weeks of data that the station couldn't find because Kline's courthouse cronies conveniently claim that the county simply purges information. It gets worse for ol' Phill: After being appointed DA, Kline thought he could meet the residency requirement by renting a tiny apartment over a storage facility owned by his supporters. Of course, Kline would spend most of his time at his other residence outside the county. The apartment in Johnson County would be his "official" residence even though he hardly spends any time there.

Reporters investigated whether Kline actually uses his Johnson County apartment, and they've never been able to find him anywhere near it. In fact they've found him living 60 miles away in Topeka instead. Kline's wife has been sighted picking up their daughter from a school in Topeka, not Johnson County.

Also, when Kline was appointed DA, he illegally fired 8 employees for political reasons, prompting a lawsuit.

The funny thing about this is that, at least in Kansas, if you don't live in the county you claim to live in, you have to either resign or be removed from your county office.

If they don't remove Phill Kline from office for lying about where he lives, then I'm just going to utterly shit. Kline is yet another living example of ongoing wingnut corruption. As a public servant, people have the right to know if he's not taking his job seriously and to expect there to be consequences if he isn't.

(Source: http://www.kctv5.com/news/14699737/detail.html;
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/11/27/05434/726;
http://kcblueblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/breaking-news-kctv-5-busts-phil-kline.html;
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/11/27/extreme-right-wing-phil-kline-investigated-by-kctv5)