Kansas City's Pitch Weekly, makes a good point about the Kansas Republican Party's new Loyalty Committe:

...when your party is nearly bankrupt and your brightest stars are bailing ranks and winning for the opposite team, maybe it's not a bad idea to put the fear of God (or, in this case, Chairman Kris Kobach) back into the hearts of unfaithful members.

They then go on to list a few local organizations that would benefit from the formation of a "Loyalty Committee" to keep an eye on their members. Here's my favorite:

JoCo DA Phill Kline: Staffers must sign waivers agreeing to wiretaps in their offices and to fetch Phill a Slim-Fast when he's too busy posting propaganda on the DA Web site.

The U.S. House Republican Caucus -- the same people who held open votes for hours and hours so members could be strongarmed bribed convinced to vote with leadership -- is refusing to come to work after a fracas over a vote last night.

The House was in disarray this morning after angry Republicans marched off the floor late last night over manuvering by Democratic leaders that cost them a parlimentary victory on legislation involving agricultural spending. GOP lawmakers marched out about 11 p.m. last night and have not returned since, throwing into uncertainty an agenda that today was to include important votes on a massive energy bill, a defense spending bill and terrorist surveillance legislation before Congress leaves on its summer recess tomorrow. It was unclear by midday when, or if, Republicans would return. Rep. Patrick McHenry (N.C.), a Republican insurgent, this morning called Democrats "cheaters," prompting a new eruption.

And they wonder why the American people decided they'd had enough of Republican rule.

Call Rep. Todd Tiahrt at (202) 225-6216 or Jerry Moran at (202) 225-2715 and tell them to do their jobs.

Turns out that Republicans, who only too recently threatened to eliminate the Senate's ability to filibuster, have now adopted the procedure as if they invented it.

 

WASHINGTON - This year Senate Republicans are threatening filibusters to block more legislation than ever before, a pattern that's rooted in - and could increase - the pettiness and dysfunction in Congress....

By sinking a cloture vote this week, Republicans successfully blocked a Democratic bid to withdraw combat troops from Iraq by April, even though a 52-49 Senate majority voted to end debate.

This year Republicans also have blocked votes on immigration legislation, a no-confidence resolution for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and major legislation dealing with energy, labor rights and prescription drugs.

Nearly 1 in 6 roll-call votes in the Senate this year have been cloture votes. If this pace of blocking legislation continues, this110th Congress will be on track to roughly triple the previous record number of cloture votes - 58 each in the two Congresses from 1999-2002, according to the Senate Historical Office.

Senate Minority Mitch McConnell will go down as the most obstructionist Party Leader in history, issuing a threat of permanent filibuster on things Iraq. Luckily, even he isn't optimistic about the makeup of the Senate after the 2008 election.

Rep. Todd Tiahrt finally felt forced to respond to The Wichita Eagle's criticism that his "Tiahrt Amendment" is tying the hands of our nation's law enforcement officials and putting them in greater danger - all for the sake of NRA dollars.

Unfortunately, his response didn't exactly address the issue. He writes:

"It is disappointing that the board apparently believes instead of erring on the side of officer safety as proposed by law enforcement professionals, Congress should step in line with the liberal politicians and media outlets that oppose the policy."

Instead of once again crying so-called liberal media "wolf" (aka not Fox news), we'd like Tiahrt to answer this:

"Tiahrt, the ATF and the Fraternal Order of Police argue that the restrictions protect the identity of undercover cops and ongoing investigations. But Tiahrt has been challenged to provide evidence that the ATF's past release of gun data endangered cops, and he has yet to produce a single example."

Oh...and we'd like his answer to this, too:

An Iowa aide to Sam Brownback found herself in some hot water after sending an e-mail to Iowa Republicans in an apparent attempt to draw unfavorable scrutiny to Mitt Romney's Morman religion.

Among the statements: "Theologically, the only thing Christianity and the LDS church has in common is the name of Jesus Christ, and the LDS Jesus is not the same Jesus of the Christian faith" and "The LDS church has never been accepted by the Christian Council of Churches."

The aide has been reprimanded by Brownback's campaign, who claims the email was for fact-checking purposes.

The National Republican Congressional Committee is grinding on voters' nerves. (More than usual, that is...)

The NRCC recently began making robocalls - slang for automated phone calls - as part of an attack campaign against Rep. Nancy Boyda, D-Kan. The campaign also included radio ads blasting Boyda, the freshman member of Kansas' congressional delegation...

Boyda's office says the claims are misleading, pointing out that one of the bills referenced by the organization would help pay for improvements at military installations and would provide health care assistance for military veterans and soldiers on active duty, among other things.

But whichever side you fall in with, we think most Kansans would agree that the robocalling needs to go — at least for now.

These ill-timed smear tactics are reminiscent of the robo-calls used to keep Kansas' 2nd District voters away from the polls last November. Those calls were made anonymously though...

The next step would be to make the no-call registry apply to political campaigning. Legislation to do just that has surfaced in the Kansas Legislature, and Boyda is sponsoring a measure along that line in Congress.

Considering the robocalling for the November 2008 election has already started, we think she's on the right track.