Top Cop Crush

Those heavy-lidded bulldog eyes. That Mr. Clean dome. Those lawman’s shoulders and nonabortion-records-snooping hands. How could Paul Morrison not be voted in as Kansas’ new attorney general?

Thanks to Kansas voters, we don’t have to imagine a world in which Morrison is not the top Sunflower State cop — a job that, he neatly pointed out, should be nonpartisan. Is there a Republican way to snap on handcuffs? A Democratic way to sniff out white-collar crooks? Nah. But there is a Paul Morrison way to gracefully handle a bitter candidates’ debate, to deftly deflect sexual harassment allegations from 15 years ago that were dug up from the political muck, and to accept the win without doing what President George W. Bush calls an “end zone dance.”

Now that Morrison has won, he’ll be going all the way to Topeka. (Too bad he couldn’t instead do his job from, say, 1701 Main.) And his victory should be a lesson to all Democrats on how to flip-flop like you mean it. He switched from being a lifelong Republican to run as a Democrat, thanks to an elegant shove from Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and the leadership of the Kansas Democratic Party. But Morrison doesn’t owe his win to Sebelius’ coattails. He owes it to himself.

That’s why this week we love Paul Morrison.