In Kansas you can give a friend of organized criminals a top position in law enforcement -- and about all that will appear in the news media is that he is the brother of a prominent polititian.

Our story begins in the summer of 1991, when the militant antiabortion group, Operation Rescue invaded the city of Wichita, Kansas. Hundreds of people were arrested, and at its peak, televangelist Pat Roberston led a rally of 25,000 people. Among the protestors were two Oregon residents, Paul deParrie and Shelly Shannon. Both, it would turn out, would be members of the violent, antiabortiont underground group, the Army of God. Wichita attorney Don McKinney says he worked with deParrie to help get some of those arrested out of jail.

What if an attorney and close associate of a well-known operative of a domestic terror organization became a special prosecutor -- nvestigating a top target of the domestic terrorists?  

Sounds like a script for a Fox TV drama series. But if it were the real world, and it were say, an animal rights attorney with ties to the Animal Liberation Front, we would be hearing nonstop howls of outrage on Fox News.  Hannity and O'Reilly would never get over it. Greta would be pondering the crisis of the breakdown of legal ethics every night. The president would hold a press conference to  denounce the opposition party for coddling domestic terrorism.  But in fact, the hypothetical situation above became reality this week in Kansas, where the outgoing GOP Attorney General  has appointed  antiabortion activist  Don McKinney to the job of investigating Wichita abortion provider George Tiller. Tiller has been the target of an assasination attempt that left him wounded in both arms and his clinic has been the target of a variety of criminal acts. McKinney has protested outide Tiller's clinic and is a longtime pal of the late Paul deParrie -- a promient member of the Army of God who has called Shelley Shannon, the would be assasin of Dr. Tiller, a "hero."

The New York Times reports that Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has filed complaints with the IRS against two Kansas churches regarding alleged violations of federal rules proscribing electioneering by tax-exempt organizations.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonpartisan legal watchdog organization, cited a memorandum from the attorney general, Phill Kline, a Republican, directing members of his campaign staff to recruit churches to distribute campaign literature and serve as the sites for events.

"This is the top law enforcement official in the state who is encouraging everyone to break the law," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the watchdog group. "He's either abysmally unfamiliar with the law, or he's deliberately violating it."...   In his memorandum, Mr. Kline identified two Topeka churches, the Light of the World Christian Center and the Wanamaker Woods Church of the Nazarene, which he said had participated in "lit drops" by handing out campaign literature...