Kansas Democrats aren’t having a great legislative session in Topeka either

Kansas politicians are making national news again this week, and as usual it isn’t for a good reason. Except this time, it’s Democrats spearheading a clumsy bit of law.

Gail Finney, a House Democrat from Wichita, brought forth an ill-advised bill that would give legal wiggle room for parents and teachers in administering an arbitrary number of spankings that would result in an arbitrary level of redness and bruising on a child’s butt.

Spanking is legal in Kansas so long as it doesn’t leave a mark. But Finney seems to think that rude kids really need to be put in their place with up to 10 open-palmed swats on the backside. And if bruises show up after a whopping, then so be it, according to House Bill 2699.

“What’s happening here is, there are some children that are very defiant and they’re not minding their parents, they’re not minding school personnel,” Finney explained to The Wichita Eagle earlier this week.

The legislation is remarkable for one thing only: It represents another waste of time on a nonpressing issue for a Legislature that has a lot of work to do. True, kids can be obnoxious. But there’s little apparent reason to think that legislating spankings is a reasonable solution.

The bill is shallow enough that it doesn’t have a hearing scheduled almost a week after it got proposed.

Finney introduced her tough-love, corporal-punishment measure on Valentine’s Day, corresponding with the zenith of nationwide contempt hurled at her Republican colleagues, like Charles Macheers, for shepherding a bill that would encourage discrimination against gay couples in Kansas.

The tide of disdain directed at House Bill 2453 (also known as the Legalizing Discrimination Against Gay Couples in Kansas Act Religious Liberties Protection Act), came after an easy margin of Kansas House members passed the measure.

By the time it reached the state Senate, Republicans there had the good sense to pull the emergency brake on H.B. 2453, at least for now. Before that happened, House Democrats were criticized for a weak response against the pro-discrimination bill.

Paul Davis, a Lawrence House Democrat running for governor against Sam Brownback, didn’t speak up on the House floor against H.B. 2453. He only later issued a statement describing the legislation as a distraction.

Which is true. But Davis missed an opportunity to take a prominent stand against a bill that was almost universally loathed at a time when eyes across the country were on Kansas. And it isn’t a waste of time to speak out against a measure that could open the door to an ugly form of discrimination.

Yes, the bill started out as a distraction, but it could have ended in legalized segregation.

Civil rights for Kansans aren’t merely a distraction.