Digging deep

Kris Kobach is mad.

At least that's the impression we get according to an e-mail sent to his supporters today.

Kobach is mad about a Kansas Democratic Party mailing that details the contributions Kobach has received from groups with ties to white supremacists.

Kobach claims "Moore gave $136,000 to the Kansas Democratic Party in order to finance this mailing" -- which is an insanely high amount to be for just a mailing. Was the mailing printed on $10 bills?

Kobach tries to defend his contributions from Gun Owners of America and the U.S. Immigration Reform PAC in multiple ways.

Kobach says that the Immigration Reform PAC "has only given maximum contributions to two candidates this cycle - Kris Kobach and Vernon Robinson, a candidate in North Carolina. Vernon Robinson is an African American."

Yes, he is. And Robinson also hates illegal aliens. (Seriously, listen to this ad -- especially the tagline for "gringos")

We're not so sure it is a good idea for Kobach to tie himself with Robinson. He's called himself the "Black Jesse Helms" and is so extreme that 1996 Republican VP nominee Jack Kemp withdrew his endorsement of Robinson.

Kris Kobach and Vernon Robinson -- both standing up against the "illegal Mexican immigration invasion."

Yes, clearly Robinson shows the Immigration Reform PAC has no racial motives whatsoever.

When you find yourself in a hole: stop digging.

But Kobach's defense only gets weirder. He blatantly lies about the funding from the pro-racial purity through eugenics Pioneer Fund that went to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, Kobach's current employer/supporter.

Kobach claims that FAIR recieved Pioneer Fund money 75 years ago. Try 1994, Kris. That's when FAIR took the last of $1.2 million from the Pioneer Fund.

Kobach also tries to tie FAIR founder and current board member John Tanton -- the center of a web of anti-immigrant groups -- to Congressman Moore.

Moore got money from Planned Parenthood, the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters, Kobach says, and Tanton was involved with all three groups.

Well, sort of.

Tanton was involved with the Northern Michigan chapter of Planned Parenthood... from 1965 to 1971. The LCV? He was a Michigan district organizer from 1970 to 1974. Sierra Club? Planning committee member from 1969-1971. Tanton was recently unsuccessful in his attempted takeover of the Sierra Club -- the culimination of a decades long fight he waged to infiltrate the group.

Wow. Pretty strong ties there, Kris. A couple of jobs in the late sixties/early seventies and an unsuccessful takeover. Tanton must be in control of all three!

And while there is no evidence of contributions from Tanton or his wife to any of these three groups in the past 14 years (OpenSecrets.org's records go back to 1990), the Tantons have given thousands directly to the U.S. Immigration Reform PAC -- $7,000 this election cycle alone -- $5,000 of which found its way directly to Kobach.

Like we said: Stop digging.

But he doesn't. Kobach continues his defense by reprising his story of Larry Pratt's speech to what Kobach now calls a "preparedness expo."

According to author Leonard Zeskind, this speech by Pratt was given at the invitation of Pete Peters, author of a pamphlet called "The Death Penalty for Homosexuals" to a "meeting of Aryan Nations leaders; former Ku Klux Klansmen; and adherents of so-called 'Christian Identity,' a doctrine in which Jews are literally considered Satanic and persons of color are referred to as 'mud people.'"

After all of this, Kobach decries these "desperate" attacks as being "through nine degrees of separation" as though he weren't the one desperately trying to find ways to link Moore to groups Kobach doesn't even think it is wrong to associate with.

But nine degrees? Surely it can't be nine...

John Tanton -- FAIR -- Kobach
John Tanton -- US Immigration PAC -- Kobach
White supremacists -- Larry Pratt of GOA -- Kobach

Nope. Less than nine.

Stop digging.