Kraske: Purgason's a joke; Roy's the boy

Roy Blunt does not have to campaign against newly announced GOP opponent Chuck Purgason as long as he has Steve Kraske to do it for him.

In his latest Kansas City Star column, Kraske tells his readers Purgason is out of the mainstream, is a joke, and doesn't have the slightest chance of winning:

He’s as conservative as Ron Paul. He wears bolo ties. His wife and kids serve as his campaign staff. He can spin a quote.

All of that is a problem for heavy GOP favorite Roy Blunt. The media’s going to love Purgason.

He won’t win. But he’s going to have Blunt chewing Excedrin like some folks down yonder chew tobacco.

Apparently, Kraske thought that last line was pretty clever. Perhaps if he had done a little digging, he could have given us some information on Purgason's stances on issues and how they differ from Roy Blunt's.

Purgason's candidacy may easily turn out to be Quixotic effort and he could turn out to be a joke as a candidate, but I would rather have reporters who examine the record and then offer analysis based on that than reporters who want to marginalize candidates before the campaign even begins.

The portion of Kraske's column that is devoted to the Purgason candidacy almost seems to have been spoonfed to him by the Blunt campaign. Of course, only a cynic would believe anything like that.