We had a pretty quiet primary in Kansas yesterday. A couple of things are worth reporting. In particular, Johnson County Republicans spared themselves the embarrassment of nominating Phill Kline for District Attorney. Kline had used his one term as Kansas Attorney General obsessively to harass abortion services throughout the state. He was so monomaniacal about this that Johnson County's Republican District Attorney Paul Morrison switiched parties to run against Kline, winning 58%-41% in 2006. Kline, in one of the great chutzpah moves on Republican political history, revenged himself by moving into Johnson County, wrangling an appointment to fill the remainder of Morrison's term, fired virtually all of Morrison's staff, and spent the last two years conducting his holy war from Morrison's old office.

Because Morrison was elected District Attorney as a Republican, his successor was nominated by a caucus of the county GOP -- fewer than 500 Republicans in a suburban Kansas City county with more than 500,000 people, who gave Kline a margin of 35 votes. Kline lost his bid for a legitimate nomination by a 60%-40% margin.

In the other Republican primary race of note, former US Rep. Jim Ryun lost his bid to run against Nancy Boyda, the Democrat who had defeated him in 2006. Before he was first elected to the House in 1996, Ryun was best known as a legendary Wichita track star, the first high school runner to break the 4-minute mile. Since then, he's become known more as a religious nut case -- his son has a featured role in Michelle Goldberg's report on the Christian right, Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism. Ryun lost to the more moderate and more respectable State Treasurer Lynn Jenkins.

So the Republican Party managed to dodge a couple of big time embarrassments. But there are plenty more left on the ballot, including presumably safe Sen. Pat Roberts, sitting on $4 million in payola, and Rep. "Tanker Todd" Tiahrt, with at least $2 million. Both are poster boys for Washington's sleazy corruption, and Tiahrt is another religious nut job, although not quite as unhinged as Ryun. It would be a public service to get rid of both, if only the Democrats are up to fighting the system their complaisance has made possible.