Criticized for accepting a $500 campaign contribution four years ago from a son of the Reverend Fred Phelps, Kansas attorney general Phill Kline has donated the same amount to a group that counters Phelps's protests at the funerals of U.S. troops killed in combat.
Kline has publicly denounced the activities of Phelps and members of his church, Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, who picket military funerals arguing that soldiers' deaths represent God's punishment for U.S. tolerance of homosexuality.
Democrat Paul Morrison, Kline's challenger in this year's attorney general race, attacked the Republican incumbent on Monday over the $500 received by his campaign in October 2002 from Benjamin C. Phelps of Topeka. It was the only contribution the younger Phelps made that year, according to state campaign finance records.
Kline spokeswoman Sherriene Jones said Tuesday that Kline's current campaign staff was unaware a Phelps family member had contributed in 2002. When told of Morrison's attack, the staff investigated and then made a $500 contribution to the Patriot Guard.
The guard is a group of motorcycle-riding volunteers who place themselves between the Westboro Baptist pickets and soldiers' families and funeral homes, often gunning their engines to drown out the protesters.
Jones said the donation in 2002 didn't raise concern because Kline has friends with the surname Phelps who are unrelated to Westboro Baptist members. Also, Kline raised almost $737,000 in 2001 and 2002.
Benjamin Phelps told the Lawrence Journal-World that he no longer backs Kline because the attorney general supports the Patriot Guard. In 2002, Phelps said, he deemed Kline "the lesser of two evils" in a close race for attorney general. "But he has proven to be the greater of two evils," Benjamin Phelps said.
On Monday, Morrison campaign manager Mark Simpson called the Phelps contribution troubling. "Someone with such terrible judgment and skewed priorities has no business being attorney general," Simpson said. "Sometimes you know a lot about a person by the company he keeps." (AP)
