Evidently the piece caused a fury among journalists across the state of Kansas who immediately began calling the Moran for Senate Campaign asking questions. The Topeka Capitol Journal quickly posted an article calling out the joke:

"The Kansas political world was nearly rocked this morning with shocking news posted on a Democratic blog. The Web site www.kansasjackass.com filed an entry titled: "Moran withdraws from U.S. Senate race."

Others followed quoting the campaign saying "Its an April Fools joke." But the Hutchinson Daily News went further interviewing the blogger himself:

"Jason Croucher, the blog's author, said close readers of his post could clearly tell it was a joke. He plans to add a disclaimer Thursday clarifying that it's not an actual news item. "On April Fool's Day, it's nice to have a little bit of levity injected into our politics," Croucher said."

The campaign then emailed the blog asking that the post be removed because it was untrue. Instead the blog responded with a comment that Rep. Moran was incensed by the blog, which was tagged at the bottom with "April Fools Day" and as a result was announcing the 2009 USA Humor Rescission Act - also a joke. That blog post also briefly quoted a portion of the lengthy email received by the blog.

The Moran campaign issued a statement clarifying that Moran was not dropping out of the race fueling the story even further.

The piece in the Hutchinson Daily News interviewed Rep. Todd Tiahrt's campaign office who was quoted saying that perhaps the reaction of the Moran campaign indicated that the blog was hitting a little too close to home. That quote, however, was removed in the morning piece, but this afternoon the Washington DC blog The Hill quoted below:

"One of the most frequent questions Congressman Tiahrt gets asked as he travels around the state is when do you think Jerry Moran will get out of the Senate race," Tiahrt's campaign manager, Robert Noland, told the News. "Apparently there was a little too much truth in the April Fool's Day joke for the Moran campaign to stomach."

The Kansas Conservative Network Fearful

While all of this was occurring the leader of the Kansas Democratic Party, Governor Kathleen Sebelius was in Washington for her confirmation hearing, continuing days of questions about her qualifications and endorsements for her consideration for Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Many have speculated that Kansas Democrats will falter significantly with the absence of the Governor's strong leadership. But members of a conservative listserv The Kansas Conservative Network discussed their fear of both KansasJackass.com and what they perceive as a left-wing conspiracy of Communists taking over after the Governor leaves.

The fact is that members of the political community, both democrats and republicans, have recently joined forces to create an open government wiki for Kansas government. While it is still in its development stages, the wiki is a non-partisan project that makes it easier for regular citizens to find information about what is occurring at the state house each day.

But conservative republican activist "EFG" sent an email throwing fearful accusations and assumptions to his hungry friends. We have now learned this is Earl Glynn who writes (we found via google search) the conservative blog Kansas Meadowlark. The email alleges that the left wing radicals who are pushing for open government, are tied to organizations like Labor Unions and social outreach orgs who are pushing the minimum wage bill in churches.

He goes further saying that

"The left has at least 4-5 full-time folks who are all new media savvy. @GPACEinKS is getting huge dollars to prevent a new coal plant and push wind energy no matter the cost. @KansasJackass is an LGBT activist, who is the left's de facto leader on Twitter and through his blog."

See the full email below (click to make bigger)



Those of us who are a part of this so-called "left wing conspiracy" are excited to hear that our work is feared by the right. They should be afraid of our outreach. But they shouldn't be afraid by transparency unless they are doing something wrong.

Similarly, I think this is another example to the more establishment democrats who have in the past snubbed their noses at things like blogs and new media that are proving to be the one place where democrats can lead the movement. In many ways new media has the power to be the Evangelicals of the Democratic Party in Kansas, bringing people together around a common cause. We have the power to do so much, the tools are there, we simply need everyone to come together around the progress.