(photo by darkblack)

A few weeks back we brought you news that the Chairman of the Kansas GOP, Kris Kobach, had sent out a Party email boasting of voter caging. That post made a bit of a splash, getting picked up by many blogs including the Huffington Post & DailyKos and was mentioned several times on Air America (Thank you, Thom Hartmann!) before it made it into the KC Star political blog, the Lawrence Journal, and even the AP. As Blue Tide Rising, the KS oriented political blog that first caught the now-infamous email, points out: "Kris Kobach is famous"

Well, I'm proud to announce that all the time spent exposing this partisan hack has paid off. The Wichita Eagle editorial board has awarded Kris Kobach with the "Hannibal Lecter 50-State Strategy" Award for "extraordinary achievement in the area of public fiascoes, flops and foolishness."

All kidding aside, what has become of Kobach's admission to caging "more voters in the last 11 months than the previous two years"? The blogs and even the media seem to have done their part. So, what happens next? Did it go unnoticed because the story broke during the holidays? We've yet to hear from Kansas Governor Sebelius or any of the Democrats running in '08 who could be most affected by any GOP election trickery, Rep. Nancy Boyda or Senate challenger Greg Orman (who is going up against Bush lackey Sen, Pat Roberts), what they think or whether anyone is going to dig deeper to find out just what the Kansas GOP's voter caging scheme is all about.

Despite artful protestations otherwise that raise even more questions, there seems to be even more an indication of wrongdoing now as Kobach has since tried to pass the blame for the email onto his subordinate, Kansas Republican Party Executive Director Christian Morgan. If there really wasn't any wrongdoing then why the questionable (non-denial?) denial and the setup for a fall-guy hot potato with the blame? Inquiring minds want deserve to know.

Let's hope that Kris Kobach will be explaining that email to a Grand Jury in the near future. Let's also hope that the Democrats will be diligently working to fight these illegal tactics......before November 2008.