The Emporia Gazette

February 14, 2012

• Headlines
• Sports
• Forums
• Weather
• Classifieds

• Help
• Log in
• Home

• E-mail story
• Post a comment
• iPod friendly version

THE Kansas Republican Party’s state committee has made a bad mistake, but it still has time to make things right.

Recently, the committee amended the party’s constitution to create a “loyalty committee” composed of state chairman Kris Kobach and the heads of the state’s four congressional districts. The purpose of the committee would be to remove from office any party officials who publicly endorse or give money to Democratic candidates.

Kobach says the creation of the committee is an attempt to promote unity, but the move is more likely to deepen the divide between the moderate and conservative wings of the party.

The state’s senior Republican officeholder, Sen. Pat Roberts, sees that clearly, even if the state committee cannot.

Roberts told the Lawrence Journal-World last week that he was worried that the creation of the loyalty committee is being seen as the imposition of a loyalty test by the party.

“There are two words that always come to me,” he said. “One of those is tolerance and one of those is respect. If you’re a party of exclusion, you’re going to have problems.”

Roberts is correct.

The perceived “disloyalty” that the new committee seeks to muzzle is not the Kansas GOP’s biggest problem. The disloyalty is only a symptom of the real problem, which is the intolerance and lack of respect shown to the party’s moderates by the currently ascendant right wing. That disrespect has become a wedge that threatens to split the party.

The conservatives, who will not give moderates a seat at the table in setting policy or choosing which candidates to back, now threaten party officials with expulsion if they do not pledge allegiance to every candidate on the party’s slate.

Can the state party give itself the authority to expel its own officials? Probably. Would such expulsions strengthen the party? Not a whit.

Kobach would be wise to remember that these officials were not all appointed by him or by the state committee. Some of them were elected by their fellow Republicans and presumably reflect to some degree the opinions of party members in their precinct or district. The loyalty junta would give party leaders — a temporary group at best — the authority to second-guess the Republican voters of Kansas.

Far better for the state committee to consider what is causing committed Republicans — committed enough to serve in the party organization — to give their support to candidates from the Democratic Party.

There is still time for the state committee to change its mind about the loyalty committee. If the committee is established, the Kansas GOP’s divisions will only get worse.

Patrick S. Kelley

Editorial Page Editor