Kansas National Guard Story Was a Political Hit

When I first heard that Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius had claimed that the tornado response from the National Guard was delayed because of troop and equipment deployments to Iraq, my B.S. detector went off big time. Her claim, made two days after the storm, just sounded so predictably like a Dem talking point that I knew it would never hold up to scrutiny. Sure enough, the facts came out almost immediately and the governor was forced to scramble for a new story.

Today, while driving around San Diego, I heard an interview on Sean Hannity's show with Quinn & Rose, a radio due from Pittsburgh. According to their sources, Gov. Sebelius received a call from Howard Dean at about 5 am Sunday morning, before she appeared on the Sunday morning shows where she made her spurious claim. Dean reportedly told her not to ask for Federal help and to say nothing more about the situation in Kansas until she heard back from the Dem heirarchy.

A little later she reportedly received a call from "Dick" (believed to be Dick Durban) who advised her to make the National Guard claim. Like a good (but not too bright) little soldier, she repeated the lie on national television.

Sen. Sam Brownback (also of Kansas) suspected something was not right and contacted the Pentagon to find out the situation for himself. He was given the facts about the National Guard situation in Kansas which indicated plenty of equipment and personnel, and was informed that no request for assistance had been made by the governor. Smelling a rat, Brownback and the White House challenged the story.

According to Quinn & Rose, Sebelius called Brownback to apologize and admitted to him that given Bush's low approval numbers, the Dems "couldn't pass up a chance like this". She said she was careful not to criticize anybody outside the White House, but was clearly directed to make this attack.

If this is true, Sebelius is not fit to continue in her job and should resign immediately. In addition, Brownback needs to come clean on this if he in fact had that conversation with Sebelius. If he knew that the Dems were running such a blatently political and disgusting play at the expense of his state's citizens and yet he chose not to reveal it, his presidential campaign is over.

I'm not much for conspiracy theories, but I doubt this story will be very easy to confirm because most of the players will shut up and hope it goes away. The citizens of Kansas are already upset with the governor, and if it turns out she just dances as the strings are pulled by Howard Dean and Dick Durban, any future she had in that state is gone. She also has been interested in a Vice Presidential bid, which may explain why she's so eager to do that bidding of the party elders.

Stay tuned.