say it ain't so paul

The Kansas City Star reported that Paul Morrison could be in for some serious scandal:

TOPEKA | News of a sexual harassment complaint against Attorney General Paul Morrison touched off a firestorm in Kansas political circles Sunday, ranging from cautious support to calls for impeachment.

Morrison acknowledged having an affair with a former employee in the Johnson County district attorney’s office, but he denied harassing her.

Morrison also denied her allegations that he tried to use the relationship to obtain sensitive information about an abortion investigation by his successor, Phill Kline. Morrison said he never tried to influence ongoing cases.

It's very disappointing, on a personal level, to see an elected official cheat on his wife. But infidelity alone shouldn't disqualify Morrison from office, at least to the extent that it doesn't interfere with his public duties.

However, there are two serious allegations of professional misconduct being leveled against Morrison, that, if true, should disqualify him from running the state's law enforcement agency.

The most potentially explosive is sexual harassment. The Star article stated that a complaint was filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (or "EEOC"). The EEOC website lists the following as examples of sexual harassment:

Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual's employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual's work performance, or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.

Sexual harassment can occur in a variety of circumstances, including but not limited to the following:

• The victim as well as the harasser may be a woman or a man. The victim does not have to be of the opposite sex.
• The harasser can be the victim's supervisor, an agent of the employer, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker, or a non-employee.
• The victim does not have to be the person harassed but could be anyone affected by the offensive conduct.
• Unlawful sexual harassment may occur without economic injury to or discharge of the victim.
• The harasser's conduct must be unwelcome.

Morrison's defense seems to rest on the last bullet point. He admits that there was a sexual relationship, but he is arguing that it was entirely consensual, and therefore any sexual advances or conduct were "welcome." Whether or not the affair was consensual is a question of fact that the EEOC will try to determine. Although at this point, without seeing the complaint against Morrison, it appears that the allegations boil down to "he said/she said," which is likely not enough, by itself, to win a sexual harassment claim. In addition, the Topeka Capital Journal article about the allegations reveals no allegations of sexual harassment while Morrison was Linda Carter's boss.

Morrison is no shrinking violet, and it's unlikely that he's going to resign without a fight. At this point, without any "smoking guns," impeachment looks like a remote possibility. Still, even if he is innocent of sexual harassment and professional wrongdoing, his political future does not look good. Marital infidelity does not play well in a conservative-leaning state like Kansas, and it is a certainty that any future Republican opponents will raise the issue. It is unfortunate that Kansas Democrats have likely lost one of their best hopes for holding onto the governor's mansion after Sebelius leaves office.