Bill O'Reilly In Abortion Record Tangle
Two abortion clinics asked the state's highest court Monday to investigate Attorney General Phill Kline and Fox television's Bill O'Reilly over O'Reilly's statements that he had obtained information from Kansas abortion records.
During a campaign stop in Wichita on Monday, Kline called the request to the Kansas Supreme Court for a special prosecutor "frivolous." It came from Dr. George Tiller and his Wichita clinic and a clinic operated in Overland Park by Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri.
Their attorneys also asked the court to seize the records of 90 patients from the two clinics. Kline, an abortion opponent, obtained edited versions of those Oct. 24 from a district court judge after a two-year legal battle with the clinics.
The court's appointing a special prosecutor would be unprecedented. There is no record of the court ever appointing one before, spokesman Ron Keefover said.
The clinics' attorneys want O'Reilly investigated because they fear his information came from the records turned over to Kline. On Friday night's "The O'Reilly Factor" the host said an inside source gave information that Tiller performed late-term abortions because patients were depressed, which he called "executing babies."
Pedro Irigonegaray, a Topeka attorney representing the clinics, also called on Fox to fire O'Reilly.
"I think the attorney general's conduct has been shameful," he said after filing his documents with the court. "Mr. O'Reilly demonstrated callous disregard for women all over this country and his statements about the records were simply false."
It's the second time in six days that a Kline critic has sought an investigation of the attorney general. On Wednesday, former Attorney General Bob Stephan, a fellow Republican who broke with Kline, asked the state Governmental Ethics Commission to examine Kline's fundraising and activities involving churches.
Kline, seeking his second term, is in a bitter race with Democrat Paul Morrison, the Johnson County district attorney. Morrison has attacked Kline repeatedly for seeking the abortion clinics' records, saying Kline abused his authority and invaded patients' privacy.
"There is no basis for such a motion before the Kansas Supreme Court ... it is a political move," Kline said.
Kline said he did not know what information O'Reilly has or where he got it. Asked if it came from someone within his office, he replied "absolutely not."
Kline has said he's reviewing the records to investigate crimes, including rapes of children, forcible rapes, incest, illegal late-term abortions, failure by doctors to report child abuse and making "false writings." He also has said no one in his office provided any information to O'Reilly from the records Kline obtained.
During his Friday night broadcast, O'Reilly also said he had evidence that Tiller had failed to report abortions on girls aged 10 to 15 to authorities, suggesting the doctor was covering up sex crimes against children.
O'Reilly didn't say whether his information came from the 90 records Kline obtained, or whether he or his staff had seen documents themselves.
David Tabacoff, executive producer of "The O'Reilly Factor," issued a statement: "We stand by our story."
Meanwhile, Kline spokeswoman Sherriene Jones questioned whether the Supreme Court is the proper place for the clinics' request.
"Any Kansan who paid attention in civics class would know that the Kansas Supreme Court is an appellate court, and they only hear cases on appeal from a lower court," Jones said. "They do not do any investigating. They don't have any authority to hear this motion because it has not been ruled on in lower court."
Irigonegaray said: "That would be for the Supreme Court to decide."
The clinics' petition not only named Kline as a defendant, but Shawnee County District Judge Richard Anderson. Although the petition criticizes O'Reilly, he isn't a named defendant.
Keefover said the justices didn't have a timetable for handling the clinics' petition, though the defendants in the case have five days to respond to the petition.
Anderson subpoenaed the records at Kline's request in September 2004, and the clinics then asked the Supreme Court to intervene. Although Anderson did not contemplate giving Kline unfettered access to the records, the Supreme Court imposed new guidelines in February for handling the records and returned the case to Anderson.
The judge took possession of the records in August, two months before turning them over to Kline, redacted so that individual patients could not be identified.
"It is apparent that Kline and/or Anderson have failed to maintain the medical records without specific protections in place to protect the privacy of patients," the clinics said in their petition.
The clinic said they want the Supreme Court to intervene because they don't know how O'Reilly obtained his information and a leak could have occurred in "either the judicial or executive branch of the government." The clinics' petition accused Kline of having a "cavalier attitude."
The clinics noted that Kline has joked about the criticism that his pursuit of the records invaded women's privacy.
During a GOP rally Sunday night in Topeka, Kline provoked laughter from thousands of Republicans when he said, "You know, it's great to see all of you in such good health, but, of course, I already knew that. I've seen all of your medical records."
© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. During a campaign stop in Wichita on Monday, Kline called the request to the Kansas Supreme Court for a special prosecutor "frivolous." It came from Dr. George Tiller and his Wichita clinic and a clinic operated in Overland Park by Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri.
Their attorneys also asked the court to seize the records of 90 patients from the two clinics. Kline, an abortion opponent, obtained edited versions of those Oct. 24 from a district court judge after a two-year legal battle with the clinics.
The court's appointing a special prosecutor would be unprecedented. There is no record of the court ever appointing one before, spokesman Ron Keefover said.
The clinics' attorneys want O'Reilly investigated because they fear his information came from the records turned over to Kline. On Friday night's "The O'Reilly Factor" the host said an inside source gave information that Tiller performed late-term abortions because patients were depressed, which he called "executing babies."
Pedro Irigonegaray, a Topeka attorney representing the clinics, also called on Fox to fire O'Reilly.
"I think the attorney general's conduct has been shameful," he said after filing his documents with the court. "Mr. O'Reilly demonstrated callous disregard for women all over this country and his statements about the records were simply false."
It's the second time in six days that a Kline critic has sought an investigation of the attorney general. On Wednesday, former Attorney General Bob Stephan, a fellow Republican who broke with Kline, asked the state Governmental Ethics Commission to examine Kline's fundraising and activities involving churches.
Kline, seeking his second term, is in a bitter race with Democrat Paul Morrison, the Johnson County district attorney. Morrison has attacked Kline repeatedly for seeking the abortion clinics' records, saying Kline abused his authority and invaded patients' privacy.
"There is no basis for such a motion before the Kansas Supreme Court ... it is a political move," Kline said.
Kline said he did not know what information O'Reilly has or where he got it. Asked if it came from someone within his office, he replied "absolutely not."
Kline has said he's reviewing the records to investigate crimes, including rapes of children, forcible rapes, incest, illegal late-term abortions, failure by doctors to report child abuse and making "false writings." He also has said no one in his office provided any information to O'Reilly from the records Kline obtained.
During his Friday night broadcast, O'Reilly also said he had evidence that Tiller had failed to report abortions on girls aged 10 to 15 to authorities, suggesting the doctor was covering up sex crimes against children.
O'Reilly didn't say whether his information came from the 90 records Kline obtained, or whether he or his staff had seen documents themselves.
David Tabacoff, executive producer of "The O'Reilly Factor," issued a statement: "We stand by our story."
Meanwhile, Kline spokeswoman Sherriene Jones questioned whether the Supreme Court is the proper place for the clinics' request.
"Any Kansan who paid attention in civics class would know that the Kansas Supreme Court is an appellate court, and they only hear cases on appeal from a lower court," Jones said. "They do not do any investigating. They don't have any authority to hear this motion because it has not been ruled on in lower court."
Irigonegaray said: "That would be for the Supreme Court to decide."
The clinics' petition not only named Kline as a defendant, but Shawnee County District Judge Richard Anderson. Although the petition criticizes O'Reilly, he isn't a named defendant.
Keefover said the justices didn't have a timetable for handling the clinics' petition, though the defendants in the case have five days to respond to the petition.
Anderson subpoenaed the records at Kline's request in September 2004, and the clinics then asked the Supreme Court to intervene. Although Anderson did not contemplate giving Kline unfettered access to the records, the Supreme Court imposed new guidelines in February for handling the records and returned the case to Anderson.
The judge took possession of the records in August, two months before turning them over to Kline, redacted so that individual patients could not be identified.
"It is apparent that Kline and/or Anderson have failed to maintain the medical records without specific protections in place to protect the privacy of patients," the clinics said in their petition.
The clinic said they want the Supreme Court to intervene because they don't know how O'Reilly obtained his information and a leak could have occurred in "either the judicial or executive branch of the government." The clinics' petition accused Kline of having a "cavalier attitude."
The clinics noted that Kline has joked about the criticism that his pursuit of the records invaded women's privacy.
During a GOP rally Sunday night in Topeka, Kline provoked laughter from thousands of Republicans when he said, "You know, it's great to see all of you in such good health, but, of course, I already knew that. I've seen all of your medical records."
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Old history has the pro-abortion people insisting that rape is their reason for insisting on abortions. If they havn't kept good medical records of rapes and abortions how would anyone know if they were right or not?
Hippocrites.
Bill O'Reilly is one of the few people in public life who really has a backbone.He may not be perfect, but he has a backbone.
Why is anyone who has a business of "executing babies" even allowed to speak? Why aren't they locked up in a hole? It is not my place to judge who should have kids, and who should not, but if every abortion customer were required to bring in a vascectomy customer to level the playing field how many abortions would that "cut" out?
Cheney, who 17 months ago said the insurgency was in its last throes, said that there's going to be probably a continued level of violence for some considerable period of time in Iraq.
SINCE D I C K IS ABLE TO READ THE FUTURE WE CAN ONLY DEDUCE THAT HE AND PERLE HAD NO CONCERNS ABOUT THE LIVES OF OUR TROOPS.
There is progress, Cheney said.
LET%u2019S DEFINE PROGRESS WITHOUT GOERING%u2019S PROPAGANDA:
PROGRESS IN IRAQ IS DEFINED BY THIS MISADMINISTRATION AS THE UNNECESSARY DEATHS OF OVER 2,800 U.S. TROOPS, UNCOUNTED IRAQI CIVILIANS, THE DESTRUCTION OF THE INFRASTRUCTURE OF IRAQ, THE VIRTUAL EROSION OF ANY RESPECT OF THE REST OF THE WORLD FOR OUR COUNTRY AND SETTING THE STAGE FOR THE CURRENT CIVIL WAR IN IRAQ. %u2026.. NOW THAT%u2019S PROGRESS!
It's the kind of thing where you have to keep grinding it out day after day after day. It's tough.
STAY THE CURSE?
STILL LOOKING FOR WMD?
STILL LOOKING FOR BIN LADEN?
TRANSLATION: IT%u2019S THE KIND OF HORROR WHERE THIS MISADMINISTRATION CHOOSES TO KEEP SENDING OUR TROOPS INTO THE MEAT GRINDER DAY AFTER DAY AFTER DAY. IT%u2019S TOUGH, BUT NOT FOR THOSE LIKE D I C K WITH THE CRYSTAL BALLS WHO HAS NEVER SERVED IN THE MILITARY. ==
Propaganda, D I C K ! Propaganda GOOSE STEP!
DO NOT PROP A GANDER.
USE PROPER CANDOR!
THINGS YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE TO BE A REPUBLICAN TODAY.
Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush%u2019s daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him, and a bad guy when Bush needed a "we can%u2019t find Bin Laden" diversion.
Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is Communist, but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.
A woman can%u2019t be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multi-national corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.
The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches,while slashing veterans%u2019 benefits and combat pay.
If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won%u2019t have ***.
A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our long-time allies, then demand their cooperation and money.
Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy, but providing health care to all Americans is socialism.
Global warming and tobacco%u2019s link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.
A president lying about an extra-marital affair is an impeachable offense, but a president lying to enlist support for a war in which thousands die is solid defense policy.
Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you%u2019re a Conservative radio host. Then it%u2019s an illness and you need our prayers
for your recovery.
BOTH LOVE TO G USH
THEIR NAMES THE SAME
WE SPELL THEM "LAME"
THEY PREACH AND SCOLD,
THEIR LIES ARE OLD.
WE DON'T BELIEVE
ONE THING THEY'VE TOLD.
IT%u2019S UP TO USH
TO MAKE THEM SHUSH
'CAUSE WHAT THEY GUSH
MAKES FOLEY BLUSH !
BUT LET'S NOT HUSH
THAT ONE'S A LUSH
THEY MAKE A FUSH
AND TALK PURE MUSH
SO KISH MY TUSH,
PILL POPPIN' RUSH!
In a matter hours you will see that.