Maybe Kobach is starting to get serious about being AG; makes right call on KBI | Opinion

Last week, I took Attorney General-elect Kris Kobach to task for jumping on the Republican bandwagon of lesser prairie chicken silliness, an issue of importance to a handful of Kansas oil and cattle barons, but not much of anybody else.

Today, it pleases me to report that Kobach has gotten one right.

On Tuesday, Kobach announced that he’s nominating a political rival, former federal prosecutor Tony Mattivi, as the next head of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.

It’s hard to see how Kobach could make a better choice.

Mattivi, who ran against Kobach and state Sen. Kellie Warren in the Republican primary for attorney general, cut an impressive figure on the campaign trail. He’s conservative on major issues including abortions, guns and the federal government — but not obnoxiously so.

Truth be told, he was probably the best candidate for attorney general, but couldn’t match Kobach’s near-universal name recognition or Warren’s political base from serving in the Legislature.

But it’d be difficult to question Mattivi’s law-enforcement credentials.

As a Justice Department attorney, he prosecuted cases ranging from drug trafficking to war crimes committed by former officials of the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq.

He prosecuted terrorism detainees, including five years as lead prosecutor in the boat-bomb attack on the guided missile cruiser USS Cole.

In Kansas, he prosecuted Terry Lee Loewen of Wichita, a radicalized Islamist who plotted to bomb Eisenhower Airport using his employee access, and right-wing militia members Patrick Stein, Curtis Allen and Gavin Wright, who plotted to blow up a Garden City mosque and an apartment building housing Muslim Somali immigrants and their families.

Think about that for a minute. Mattivi got all of the above 20 to 30 years in federal prison, whether their motive was radical Islam or radical opposition to Islam.

What that should tell you is that Mattivi is a serious guy who, without regard to politics, wants to put bad actors behind bars so we can all sleep safer at night.

And that’s exactly what we need in a KBI director.

Choosing who heads the KBI is one of the most crucial decisions an attorney general will be called on to make.

So credit Kris Kobach, who, by all indications, hit it out of the park with the Mattivi nomination.

The knock on Kobach has never been his intelligence, but that he often — too often — allows his personal politics to intrude on good judgment.

So it’s welcome that he put the campaign behind him and made a serious choice for KBI director — even though they were hard-fought rivals less than five months ago.

“Along the campaign trail, I quickly realized that Tony is dedicated to seeking justice and committed to ensuring that all Kansas law enforcement officers are valued and supported,” Kobach said in a statement announcing the nomination. “These are goals we share. Tony’s experience and integrity make him a perfect fit to lead the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.”

Agreed.

Mattivi’s on deck to replace Kirk Thompson, who announced his retirement earlier this year after 12 years heading the bureau.

The nomination will require Senate confirmation — which can get sticky in its own right.

At times, it’s stupid and ugly, as in 2020 and 2021, when senators twice rejected the appeals court nomination of highly respected public defender Carl Folsom, in part because he had once been assigned as defense attorney in a child-porn case.

But our senators would have be out of their minds — even more than usual — if they don’t confirm Tony Mattivi for director of the KBI.