Why You Can Never Give Freakazoids Any Power

Because in pursuit of their destructive superstition, they will break any law, commit any crime, ruin any life, undermine any constitutional democracy. Here's proof:

In a new ethics complaint that alleges large-scale abuse of office, the former attorney general of Kansas is accused of dispatching staff to record license plates of women entering George Tiller's abortion clinic, getting records from a motel where patients stayed, and obtaining state medical files under false pretenses, then retaining them after his term as AG was over and repeatedly lying about it in court.

All of this occurred during Attorney General Phill Kline's unsuccessful pursuit of Tiller, the doctor who ran Women's Health Care Services of Wichita and was shot to death, allegedly by an anti-abortion extremist, in 2009.

SNIP

In 2005, Kline successfully requested a subpoena for motel records from the La Quinta Inn in Wichita, where many of Tiller's patients stayed. The motel was forced to produce records of those who received a medical discount for lodging, a "detailed record of all telephone calls" to or from the patients' rooms, as well as the names of any traveling companions.

To identify patients of Tiller, Kline's office then compared the motel records with abortion records from the state department of health. That effort produced 221 possible names, according to the complaint.

Apparently not satisfied, Kline's staff then allegedly staked out Tiller's clinic, recording license plate numbers of visitors and employees. They then attempted to run the numbers through state databases to identify who was going to the clinic. That effort went on for the better part of a year, according to the complaint:

[B]etween January 2005, and the Fall of 2005, the respondent 's subordinates engaged in an effort to identify visitors and employees of Dr. Tiller's clinic by staking out the clinic, following visitors and employees to their vehicles and recording automobile license plate numbers. Attempts were made to run the numbers through state agencies in order to identify the name of the driver.

Kline deputy Eric Rucker allegedly later lied to the state Supreme Court when he said the AG was "not pursuing the identity of any adult woman who had obtained services" from the abortion clinic.

It gets worse. Read the whole thing.

No, this is not insanity. No, this is not an isolated case. No, this is not a fanatic who got carried away.

Kline is what passes today for mainstream repug. This is the kind of plain criminal who believes himself above the law because a bunch of illiterate Bronze Age desert nomads figured out a mythological justification for their misogyny.

Kline is proof that anyone who claims anti-choice beliefs should be automatically barred from public office.