ormer Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline, if not exactly optimistic, is at lest hopeful that the Republicans in the U.S. Senate will stand as one to block the appointment of Stephen Six to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Six, himself a former Kansas attorney general, owes his nomination to the current Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius.

In the way of background, in 2006 then Kansas Governor Sebelius persuaded a popular district attorney named Paul Morrison to switch parties and challenge incumbent Kline, a Republican, in the state attorney general race.

Kline had to go. He had launched a serious criminal investigation into an out-of-control abortion industry that had made Kansas the improbable world capital of late term abortions.

Backed by some $2 million in abortion industry money and the full-throated support of the McClatchey newspapers in Wichita and Kansas City, the newly-minted Democrat Morrison beat Kline in the general election.

In an unexpected reversal of fortune, however, Kline was elected by Republican precinct captains to fill Morrison’s post as district attorney of the affluent Kansas City suburb of Johnson County.

In that role, Kline was able to file the first and only criminal case ever against abortion power Planned Parenthood. He did so only after an independent judge had reviewed Kline’s evidence and found probable cause to believe the crimes had been committed.

Kline charged Planned Parenthood with 107 criminal acts, including 23 felonies. The case, which is still alive, threatens Planned Parenthood with the loss of $350 million plus in annual federal funding if convicted

Several months after taking office in 2007, Morrison got caught in a seamy sex scandal and was forced out. In January 2008, Sebelius appointed Six, a Democrat, to replace him.

As expected, Six used the power of his office to obstruct the case. Today, more than six years after Kline subpoenaed the records to launch his investigation, the case has yet to reach trial. 

According to Kline, “Much of this delay is due to Six.” In a brief well backed by documentation, Kline has accused Six of any number of improprieties to protect Planned Parenthood.

These include pursuing lawsuits to return subpoenaed evidence to Planned Parenthood, securing secret orders to gag a critical witness, and suing Kline himself to seize the evidence he had compiled against Planned Parenthood.

When asked about these allegations before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Six proved so evasive Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa asked him to put his answers in writing.  

According to Kline, “These written responses are even more deceptive.” Says Kline, “Six worked overtime, coordinating with the Sebelius legal efforts to prevent these enforcement records and redacted medical records from being used against Planned Parenthood.”

If the vote on Six moves to the Senate floor, as is likely, the Republicans will need 41 of their 47 senators to block Six’s nomination.

Both US senators from Kansas, Jerry Moran and Pat Roberts, have already announced their opposition. Grassley of Iowa, the Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee, is likely to join them.