That jolt you just felt was the Earth as it stopped spinning

There's a new post up over at TheKansasRepublican. And we here at LBK couldn't agree more with it's premise (or at least what we think it's premise is).

Much has been written about Ben Hodge…most of it true. We all know Ben isn’t running for re-election; We all know he doesn’t care about beating Democrats; We all know that he really doesn’t care about anyone but Ben Hodge; We all know he doesn’t have a permanent address. We know all that.

But what we have finally determined is that Ben Hodge is possibly the worst State Representative in the state of Kansas. And that is not hyperbole. His behavior as a legislator has been embarrassing not only to himself, but to his District and to a large extent, the Kansas Republican Party.

Luckily Ben Hodge is not running for re-election. But us here at The Kansas Republican believe we have not seen the end of Ben Hodge. Rumor has it he may run for the House in a different district or run against an incumbent Senator like Barbara Allen or David Wysong. He has exhibited in the past an ability to pop up in any district to run for office, so we wouldn’t be surprised to see him pop up in the wealthy areas of Johnson County to run for office.

It’s too bad when elected officials push their own agendas at the expense of the people of Kansas. There appears to be a lot of that going around in Topeka these days.

Hear, hear, TKR. We couldn't have said it better ourselves. Bravo.

NEUFELD LOSES THREE VOTES: OVERRIDE FAILS

Melvin Neufeld waited until exactly the right time.

He had threatened to keep the legislature in session indefinitely until the Governor's veto of two coal-powered, carbon-belching power plants in Western Kansas could be safely overridden.

So yesterday, ol' Mel finally unleashed the fury, holding a vote to override the veto, confident he had his 84 votes.

That confidence was misplaced. After holding legislators hostage for hours trying to find the votes, the override attempt failed, 80-45. Not only did he not get an extra vote -- the bill passed the house originally with 83 votes -- he actually had a net LOSS of three votes. All the arm-twisting, threatening and game-playing just turned people away.

Of course, it's only because Kathleen Sebelius bought people tickets to the final four.

Neufeld said after the vote that Sebelius allowed legislators to fly on state aircraft to The University of Kansas games in the NCAA Tournament to leverage her position on the coal fight.

"What else did the state pay for?" the speaker said. "I have no idea."

What soon-to-be-former-Speaker Neufeld fails to mention is that the individuals in question paid their own way. He also forgot that many of them were and still are in favor of the coal plants and that it's commonplace for a governor to bring legislators along on when traveling in their official capacity.

But I'm sure none of the special projects that he was promising to give people if they voted his way would have cost the state any money.

On a troubling note, Rep. Tom Hawk (D-Manhattan) voted with Neufeld and the rest of the Sunflower cronies. Rep. Hawk has been on the right side of this issue from day one, but yesterday there were some rumblings around the capitol that he had been seduced by Neufeld. We don't know the reason yet and we may never, but this blogger is shocked and saddened that a man who has been a very good legislator could flip-flop on such an important issue. We'll bring you more details as we get them.

Republicans voting yes: Aurand, Beamer, Bethell, Bowers, Brown, Brunk, Burgess, Carlson, Colyer, Craft, Crum, Dahl, Donohoe, Faber, Fund, George, Goico, Gordon, Grange, Hayzlett, Hill, Carl Holmes, Mitch Holmes, Horst, Huebert, Humerickhouse, Johnson, Kelley, Kelsey, Kiegerl, King, Kinzer, Knox, Landwehr, Light, Mast, Masterson, McLeland, Merrick, Jim Morrison, Moxley, Myers, Neufeld, Olson, O'Neal, Otto, Owens, Patton, Peck, Powell, Powers, Proehl, Rhoades, Roth, Schroeder, Schwartz, Shultz, Siegfreid, Sloan, Swanson, Tafanelli, Vickrey, Watkins, Whitham, Wilk, William Wolf and Yoder.

Republicans voting no: Colloton, Hodge, Huntington, Metsker, Judy Morrison, Pottorff, Quigley, Spalding, Swenson, Kay Wolf and Worley.

Democrats voting yes: Feuerborn, Gatewood, Grant, Hawk, Lukert, McKinney, Palmer, Pauls, Peterson, Phelps, Ruff, Wetta and Williams.

Democrats voting no: Ballard, Burroughs, Carlin, Crow, Davis, Dillmore, Faust-Goudeau, Flaharty, Flora, Frownfelter, Garcia, Goyle, Henderson, Henry, Holland, Kuether, Lane, Loganbill, Long, Mah, McCray-Miller, McLachlan, Menghini, Neighbor, Rardin, Ruiz, Sawyer, Storm, Svaty, Tietze, Treaster, Trimmer, Ward and
Winn.

Crazy out, crazy in

Kansas lost the very best State Representative/blogger yesterday. Yes, Rep. Ben Hodge resigned, effective at the end of the wrap-up session. Some of you more astute readers may be saying, "WTF, his term is over at the end of the wrap-up session, why not just announce you aren't seeking re-election?"

The answer? With Ben Hodge, who knows. Under this scenario, Scott Schwab (who inside sources have informed us is actually Undead) will likely be appointed his successor by the Republican Central Committee in Johnson County (of which Schwab is the chair), but he would still have to run for "re-election" in November. Schwab has already held this seat once, ceding to Hodge to launch a quixotic yet unsuccessful run at being slaughtered by Dennis Moore (he couldn't get past the primary), so it's not like he would benefit too much from the "incumbency."

Personally, I think it was just because Hodge is too lazy to go to committee meetings over the summer.

Unfortunately, we likely haven't seen the last of this God of Hacks. According to the KC Star, he'll be reaking havoc on a different part of Johnson County, most likely challenging Barbara Allen in the 8th Senate District. Apparently she is too normal for Ben's tastes.