Kansas Republicans just received a surprising criticism from one of their own. As picked up last night on Huffington Post, former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-KS) told a group of local Kansas journalists yesterday that the GOP needed to get on board and stop fighting health insurance reform. His most stunning observation was reported by the KC Star:

"Sometimes people fight you just to fight you," he said. "They don't want Reagan to get it, they don't want Obama to get it, so we've got to kill it...Health care is one of those things...Now we've got to do something."

Today, Bob Dole will be releasing a statement with former Sens. Tom Daschle, Howard Baker, and George Mitchell along the same lines calling on Congress to enact health insurance reform.

More below the fold...

Last week, SurveyUSA released the results of their monthly approval rating poll in Kansas showing a staggering six percent drop in approval for Senator Sam Brownback. Brownback, who is running for Governor of Kansas, now finds himself under the so-called "safe" 50% threshold for election.

Brownback's 48% approval is nearing his all time low achieved when he left Kansas to pursue his ambition of becoming President. Worst yet for him, he's bleeding moderates. One in ten abandoned Brownback in September. Many have said this race is already over, but this is clear evidence it is only the beginning.

It's been a barrel of laughs this summer for Kansas Republicans.

However, instead of Rep. Lynn Jenkins laughing at uninsured constituents, we find voters actually laughing at another Kansas Republican -- Rep. Todd Tiahrt. Earlier this summer, Tiahrt held a town hall meeting on health care reform and made the false claim that H.R. 3200 will set a cap on doctors wages. That claim has been debunked across the board and the attendees knew it.

It's really a stunning rebuke of Kansas Republicans and their lies. This is just another sign of the tide turning against the Republicans in Kansas.

Need more proof? Meet me below the fold...

Seems like the Kansas Republican Party is a little desperate for cash these days because they're now trying to line their pockets with outdated unemployment numbers. It's really a shameless ask.

A KDP supporter sent their fundraising message into us this morning. Here's some excerpts:

August not only brought high summer temperatures, it brought heated debate on the economy and loss of American jobs. Right here in Kansas, the unemployment rate hit a 26 year high of 7.4%2 in July. Since April 2009, the state lost 30,000 jobs meaning there will soon be over 100,000 unemployed Kansans... Your contribution of $100, $50, $25 or even $10 is essential to our efforts!

Laughing Lynn Jenkins is safely back in Washington this month after a string of nationally embarrassing stories, headlines, and videos. Safe among her real friends, Jenkins is surely hoping to forget what some Kansans have dubbed her horrible no good very bad August recess. True to form, she's also hoping the people of Kansas will forget all about it too.

But we're not gonna let up. To start, we're launching JenkinsFail.com, a new website from the Kansas Democratic Party with the sole intent of keeping track of Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins' repeated failures both past and present.

Wanna know more? Meet me below the fold...

Rep. Lynn Jenkins' "terrible awful no good very bad" August is definitely extending into September. Yesterday, her parade of failure marched on. Elizabeth Smith, the uninsured single mother that Jenkins laughed at, is now telling her story in her own words. Last night on the Ed Show, she made it clear that she was "frustrated" with her Congresswoman and that she "wasn't looking for a handout" in insurance reform.

After this week, I bet Lynn Jenkins can't wait to get back home to Washington. Video below the fold...

The tide is turning in Kansas' Second Congressional district.

In what has to be described as Republican Rep. Lynn Jenkins' terrible awful no good very bad August, the Congresswoman has faced a slew of bad front page headlines, embarrassing gaffes, and three consecutive mentions on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Jenkins has admitted she failed to read legislation she's voted on, has no plans to read the health bills she opposes, and failed to show compassion by laughing at an uninsured single mother while she held her young son.

Lucky for her, August is over... but September is already off to a bad start. She can't wait to find shelter in Washington.

All the bad press is starting to catch up. She's rattled. Yesterday, Rep. Jenkins held another town hall forum, and, let's just say, the crowd was left unimpressed. Meet me below the fold for more.

Lynn Jenkins is really making a name for herself this past week.

No, I'm not talking about her "great white hope" comments. I'm talking about her incredibly cold response to a 27-year-old single mother without health insurance. This polite woman, a full time waitress, falls just within the health insurance crack. Despite having a young son, she can't afford health insurance and doesn't qualify for Medicaid or SCHIP. As the AP wrote:

One was Elizabeth Smith, a 27-year-old Ottawa waitress who wanted to know what was wrong with a government-run plan for Americans who are currently uninsured. Smith's 2 1/2-year-old son, Jonah, sat on a nearby table, swinging his legs...

....Smith's son hasn't been to a doctor in 21 months, except for emergency room visits for ear infections, because she can't afford either insurance or a doctor's visit.

Jenkins' response? A hardy laugh and the words "go be a grown up."

This uncompassionate, bureaucratic exchange between Smith and Lynn Jenkins' was luckily caught on tape. The footage is incredible in it's detachment from the dire situation that is our health insurance crisis.

I can't say enough about how great Netroots Nation was last week.

It was an incredible experience for me and an ever better opportunity to network, train, and learn from some of the best in the business. (I also played a lot of poker -- lost, but still had fun!) But I wouldn't have been able to go without a sizable investment in me politically by Democracy for America.

Joining great new media activists like Daily Kos' own slinkerwink, Future Majority's Mike Connery, and our movement's 15 year old wiz kid Karl Singer (populista), I was among some pretty great bloggers and activists. But, more importantly, none of us would have been able to afford it without DFA.

I just finished penning a thank you note to the team over at DFA with a $20 check I hope will go to funding the scholarship program in 2010. I've attached it below and I encourage you to do the same.

And she won't tell anyone? Last week, Republican Rep. Lynn Jenkins was in true form, and pandering to her base.

A self proclaimed member of the "party of no", she is pledging to do all she can to defeat any Democratic proposal in the House. But when the media wanted to know her alternative plan to the health insurance crisis, things got a little weird. As I wrote last week:

Lynn Jenkins says she has the solution for our broken health insurance system. The only problem? It's a secret -- and she won't share it with us...Rep. Jenkins told her constituents she had an alternative plan but that she "hasn't been invited" to share.