Topeka — A sex scandal surrounding Attorney General Paul Morrison is making another Democrat, Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson, a target for the state Republican Party.
Parkinson and Morrison have been friends for more than 20 years. That has GOP leaders asking whether Parkinson knew about an extramarital affair Morrison had with a former subordinate.
Prominent Democrats, including Parkinson, say they didn't know until after the affair ended - and shortly before Morrison acknowledged it publicly. But GOP leaders hope Kansans will ask whether Democrats hid a serious character flaw to help Morrison unseat Republican incumbent Phill Kline in the 2006 attorney general's race.
Those GOP leaders assume Parkinson is capable of political skullduggery because he, like Morrison, switched parties. But Parkinson also is an inviting target because, like Morrison before his fall, he could become a serious gubernatorial or U.S. Senate candidate.
Morrison's behavior eliminates him as a rising Democratic star. A scandal that tars more Democrats would be a bigger gift to the Republican Party.
"It is a difficult thing to restrain yourself from speculation in these matters because of the political benefit that can occur," said Sen. Phil Journey, a Haysville Republican.
Morrison plans to leave office Jan. 31, and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, also a Democrat, will pick someone to fill the last three years of his term. He announced his resignation Dec. 14, only five days after The Topeka Capital-Journal broke the story. The detailed allegations of Linda Carter, his ex-lover, gave Morrison little choice, even though he denied much of what she said.
According to Carter, the affair began in September 2005 and lasted two years, while Morrison was running for attorney general and after he took office. When it started, he was Johnson County district attorney and she was the office's director of administration. She kept that job even after Republicans picked Kline to replace Morrison as district attorney.
She said some trysts occurred inside the Johnson County Courthouse and that Morrison promised to divorce his wife and got a tattoo with her initials. She also accused him of professional misconduct, including trying to get her to pass on sensitive information about Kline.
"People deserve to know what Mark Parkinson knew," said Christian Morgan, the state GOP's executive director. "These guys were very close personal friends. What did he know? I think it's a valid question."
Morrison became a Democrat and launched his campaign for attorney general in October 2005. In February 2006, Parkinson, still a registered Republican, became the campaign's co-chairman. Parkinson became a Democrat three months later.
State Democratic Chairman Larry Gates said Parkinson had no role in recruiting Morrison, but Morgan suggested that Parkinson could have persuaded a close friend not to run or could have warned Democrats about his flaws after joining the party.
Also, there's an old allegation of sexual harassment against Morrison, and Parkinson certainly knew about it.
Another ex-employee said Morrison made a drunken sexual advance toward her in a bar in 1990; later, she claimed, she lost her job for resisting. Morrison denied misconduct. A federal investigation concluded she had no witnesses to corroborate her version of events, and two federal lawsuits were dismissed in 1992 and 1993.
Kline raised the case as an issue in mid-October, but the tactic struck even some Republicans as desperate-looking, and it backfired on him. Now, some Republicans are saying the 1990 incident was evidence of a potential pattern.
Parkinson was one of Morrison's attorneys in the two federal lawsuits during the 1990s.
"We feel in this situation that basically the governor and the lieutenant governor put their seal of approval on Paul Morrison," Morgan said.
Parkinson responded during an interview that he'd never seen anything in Morrison suggesting he was capable of having an affair. He said the old sexual harassment case was different because there was no allegation of kissing or touching.
If prominent Democrats had known about Morrison's affair with Carter, Parkinson said, they wouldn't have recruited Morrison to run against Kline.
Sebelius said anyone who thinks so doesn't understand Kansas politics. She added that for her, "It would have been some personal jeopardy."
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jmadison (anonymous) says…
Parkinson takes over the state government reins, when Sebelius leaves for Washington when Hilary selects her for a federal position.
Phillbert (anonymous) says…
Christian Morgan - like most of the holier-than-thou branch of the Republican Party - seems awfully interested in other people's personal lives. I wonder what his reaction would be if people started asking "valid questions" about his?
texburgh (anonymous) says…
More proof that today's Kansas Republican party has nothing. This is the party that is anti-health insurance, anti-public education, anti-higher education, anti-civil rights, and pro-war; this is the party that drifts farther away from common sense every day; all they have managed to do in Kansas is starve schools and raise our taxes by giving away breaks to businesses . If you can't win on issues, try creating a scandal. Mark Parkinson knew Paul Morrison, therefore Mark Parkinson is guilty. Guilty of what we don't know. Using Christian Morgan's logic every Republican is guilty of whatever Parkinson is guilty of. After all, Morrison was a Republican when this was going on so every Republican who knew him then must be by extension guilty of something.
Didn't George W. Bush know Larry Craig? Bush must be guilty of Craig's crimes. Jim Ryun knew Mark Foley and even co-hosted parties with him. Ryun must be guilty of Foley's crimes. Don't jump on me! I'm only applying Christian Morgan's logic.
Real Republicans should be disgusted by the neo-Nazi thugs that have taken over their party. Kansas Republican Party leadership is running on empty and Kansas Republicans should take their party back.
Centerville (anonymous) says…
This reporter is obsessed with the affair and hopes to lead all of you that way, too. The problem that John Hanna and the governor want you to ignore is that Parkinson represented Morrison in the previous harrassment suit. Parkinson did know that Morrison used his position to threaten the plaintiff with loss of custody of her children. Whether or not Parkinson knew about this affair, who cares? Don't fall for the side show.
merrill (anonymous) says…
Kris Kobach, a former counsel to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft who is currently the chairman of the Kansas GOP, sent out an email on Thur entitled ââ ÅKansas Republican Party Year in Reviewââ  in which he brags of voter caging. Blue Tide Rising has the goods:
ââ Â: Kris Kobach, chairman of the Kansas GOP, sent out a self-congratulatory litany of accomplishments. Among them was one particularly eye-catching item:
ââ ÅTo date, the Kansas GOP has identified and caged more voters in the last 11 months than the previous two years!ââ  [ââ Â:]
Slate.com has the best comprehensive write-up on how the Republican Party employs caging techniques to suppress the votes of the poor, the deployed, and college students. (You know, likely Democratic voters.)
Did we mention itââ /¢s illegal? And that Kris Kobach is proud to be doing it?
Since Kris Kobach canââ /¢t expand his own party or force his own Partyââ /¢s members to support his candidates heââ /¢s shamelessly trying to keep Democrats from voting instead. This is the stratagem of a desperate and shrinking party.
Someone needs to ask Kris Kobach which voters heââ /¢s caging and how heââ /¢s doing it. Someone like a newspaper editor or perhaps a Grand Jury. ââ Â: (more)
More on Kris Kobach here and here (He apparently suffers from an advanced case of Lou Dobbs disease). Depending on what methods are being used in Kobachââ /¢s admitted voter caging scheme, it may very well be illegal, but hardly surprising. Voter suppression through caging lists has become a standard part of the Republican playbook to steal elections for some time now. In Sept McClatchy detailed current Republican voter caging efforts underway in Florida and Ohio to ââ Åimpede Democratic-leaning minorities from voting in 2008,ââ  and back in July PBS NOW took a look at the Republican Partyââ /¢s voter caging plan ââ Ådesigned to keep Democrats from voting, allegedly by targeting people based on their race and ethnicity.ââ  Watch that video here.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12...