Overland Park ? Hours after winning the Republican nomination for Congress, Adam Taff took the stage at a victory rally and thanked his opponent, Jeff Colyer: “You are an outstanding leader in the community and an outstanding leader in the medical field.”

The words were kind, considering Taff’s commercials went so far as to question whether Colyer, a plastic surgeon, should call himself a pediatric surgeon when he also performs breast implants.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore, whom Taff is challenging, raised doubts about Republicans’ ability to unite. He pointed out that each candidate had accused the other of misrepresenting his background.

“I never have called anybody in any campaign I’ve ever been in a liar,” Moore said in an interview Wednesday. “I don’t know how you say somebody isn’t telling the truth, and then a week later say, ‘I have great respect for him.”‘

Taff predicted the two camps would come together: “You know, it’s kind of a contact sport, but after the game is over, you shake hands. We’re all Republicans at the end of the day.”

A pilot of commercial planes and Navy fighter jets, Taff breaks tradition as the first Republican moderate to run for Congress against Moore. Conservative Republicans have won the nomination in the Johnson County-area 3rd District ever since 1996, when moderate Republican Rep. Jan Meyers retired.

Winning by 2,882 votes out of 77,214 cast, Taff may have been helped by moderate GOP support for a Johnson County school sales tax, which passed by an overwhelming 61 percent.

Republican bickering

The question remains whether Republicans can change another factor that worked to Moore’s advantage in the past: bitter infighting among party moderates and conservatives.

On Wednesday, leaders from both factions flanked Taff and declared they all could join forces to win in November.

Notably absent, however, were conservative U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback and moderate Gov. Bill Graves, who had deepened party divisions by publicly taking sides in the primaries. Brownback was on a family vacation in Tennessee; Graves was vacationing in Colorado.

Brownback did issue a statement saying he would support all Republican candidates in November, and a spokesman said Friday that next week, Brownback would contribute $5,000 to Taff’s campaign from his political action committee.

Many moderates, including Graves, took the same vow of unity in 2000 with a grudging, post-primary endorsement of that year’s nominee, former state Rep. Phill Kline.

However, those same moderates worked against Kline this year in his campaign for Kansas attorney general Graves even appeared in television commercials supporting David Adkins, the Republican whom Kline defeated Tuesday for the nomination.

Nationally, Republicans eager to add the 3rd District to their U.S. House majority have some work to do, too. Despite a tendency to stay neutral in primary campaigns, the chairman of congressional Republicans’ campaign committee had endorsed Colyer and encouraged Taff to drop out of the race.

“You’ve got an airline pilot who’s a nice kid, but he’s got no clue,” the lawmaker, Virginia Rep. Tom Davis, told The New York Times.

Davis’ operation lent support to Taff following his victory, saying the nominee would mount a well-funded race. Davis himself spoke by telephone Wednesday with Taff. Taff said the congressman congratulated him and complimented his campaign.

“Tom and I had a nice conversation on the phone,” Taff said.

But did he address having worked to get the other candidate elected? Taff paused and thought, then paused a bit longer.

“He said I showed him something he wasn’t sure he would see,” Taff finally said.