The Kansas Republican Party finally responded to questions about the email they sent out on Friday which gloated about their use of illegal voter suppression techniques. Unfortunately, we don't get to hear anything from the man who sent the email, KSGOP Chairman Kris Kobach. Instead we have to settle for this explanation from Executive Director Christian Morgan:

“It’s just a term of art,” Morgan said of caging voters.

'Term of art', now where have I heard that before? Somewhere... hmmm ... Oh yeah! It was here.

Caging, as Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) "helpfully pointed out, 'is a term of art in mailhouses' – it refers to the place where letters go when they have no address, all batched up in a separate room."

Little hint here KSGOP, when trying to cover-up your coordinated voter suppression as just another meaningless gaffe, try and avoid using language that might further implicate you. It's alright though, it's not like anyone is following this story.

Our friends over at BlueTideRising, bring us an interesting story. The KSGOP sent out an email yesterday with the following line.

To date, the Kansas GOP has identified and caged more voters in the last 11 months than the previous two years!

I'm sure that's got you asking, "What is a caged voter?"

The use of direct mail caging techniques to target voters resulted in the application of the name to the political tactic. With one type of caging, a political party sends registered mail to addresses of registered voters. If the mail is returned as undeliverable - because, for example, the voter refuses to sign for it, the voter isn't present for delivery, or the voter is homeless - the party uses that fact to challenge the registration, arguing that because the voter could not be reached at the address, the registration is fraudulent. A political party challenges the validity of a voter's registration; for the voter's ballot to be counted, the voter must prove that their registration is valid.

Voters targeted by caging are often the most vulnerable: soldiers deployed overseas, those who are unfamiliar with their rights under the law, and those who cannot spare the time, effort, and expense of proving that their registration is valid. On the day of the election, when the voter arrives at the poll and requests a ballot, an operative of the party challenges the validity of their registration. Ultimately, caging works by dissuading a voter from casting a ballot, or by ensuring that they cast a provisional ballot, which is less likely to be counted.

So the KSGOP is not only involved in coordinated, illegal voter suppression they are also bragging about it.

No surprise that KS GOP Chairman Kris Kobach would miss the mark on an email like the one the folks at Blue Tide Rising received yesterday.

Could Kris Kobach actually be so politically tone-deaf to think it's appropriate to compare female office-holders to drunken undergraduates ala "Girls Gone Wild?" Apparently so.

Moreover, Kris Kobach is crassly playing to every man who thinks to himself "My wife spends to much of our (or, worse, "my") money on her shopping sprees." Memo to Kobach, Archie Bunker isn't a real voter.

If you think this isn't about gender then ask yourself, why is Kris Kobach giving male Democratic leaders a pass? Why aren't Dennis Moore, Steny Hoyer, Harry Reid, Anthony Hensley, and Dennis McKinney also targets of Kris Kobach's sexist "Spending Spree" attacks?

Really no surprise there, what we find audacious is that the KSGOP would attack Democrats for out of control spending.

Perhaps Mr. Kobach has forgotten that the last President to balance the budget was President Clinton.

Or how Kathleen Sebelius saved taxpayers over $1 billion during her first term by running the Kansas government more efficiently.

Or the fact that Congresswoman Boyda voted against giving Members of Congress a raise...while Todd Tiahrt was for it.

Not to mention that Nancy Pelosi re-instituted Pay As You Go legislation that the Republicans did away with.

If anyone needs a lesson in fiscal responsibility, it's the male leadership of the Republican Party who have done nothing but sink this country into endless debt.

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.

Here we go again:

A former executive director of the Kansas Republican Party has filed a lawsuit in Topeka against the political organization's current leadership to pursue a claim of nearly $27,000 in unpaid salary and compensation.

Freeman, who didn't return a telephone call for comment, said in the lawsuit his employment contract with the GOP stipulated he receive one month of regular salary, listed as $5,500, if dismissed. He claims Kobach declined to pay this salary allotment.

Freeman also asserted he was denied $21,480 in commissions earned on contributions to the state party organization.

What's with former KS GOP leaders getting into trouble with their ex-employers? Too bad for Mr. Freeman, its hard to get $27,000 out of a bankrupt organization.