The comprehensive highway plan passed by the 2010 legislature creates jobs, and maintains Kansas' status as having the best highways in the nation. And the biggest beneficiary will be those areas of the state where the most traffic is: Johnson County and the 3rd Congressional District.

The new highway plan contains a formula guaranteeing that each of Kansas' 105 counties will benefit. But as we discussed the highway needs of Kansas in numerous meetings on the Task Force, it became clear that, as much as I love Western Kansas, that the Johnson County area had lots of new transportation needs.

Some State Representatives, such as Rep. Jeff Coyler (Brownback's running mate), and my own state representative, Bill Wolf, voted for the new highway plan, but against the funding mechanism, which is basically a joke, because if you vote for something, but vote not to fund it, you really aren't supporting it.

But Rep. Yoder, in an effort to complete his latest chameleon-like transformation from moderate Republican to Tea Party wannabe, insisted on going "whole hog," voting against the entire highway plan. He clearly cares more about his political ambition than whether Kansas residents hit potholes, experience traffic jams, and have unnecessary car accidents. What could be more important than public safety? And when has Kansas needed transportation jobs more desperately than now?

Yoder is a political windsock, constantly reinventing himself as the wind blows. As a high school debater, he concluded that Hawaii has the best health care system in the country. Hawaii's employer-mandated health care system is a nightmare for the private sector, and is twenty times worse than Obamacare. But like I said before, you can't read much into high school debate.

But you can read a lot into Yoder's political involvement in college. Yoder was an active liberal Democrat at KU, and became Student Body President in part because of his beliefs. He was a Democrat living in Lawrence until he switched to the Republican party in 2002 to run for a Johnson County Kansas House of Representatives seat, moving to an apartment behind the K-Mart at 95th and Metcalf in Johnson County. He won his race with the help of a moderate Republican coalition.

But about a year ago, when he saw the political winds shifting away from moderate Republicans in favor of Tea Party anti-government zealots, he became a slash and burn
reactionary, against highways, schools, anything sponsored by "the government." His only core belief appears to be his own career advancement. His votes on the highway plan may have impressed a few Tea Partiers, but he voted against jobs, public safety, and a better Kansas.

Patricia Lightner did the right thing for Johnson County when she supported Governor Bill Graves' Comprehensive Highway Plan in 1999. And Rep. Yoder did the wrong thing this year when he voted against the new Comprehensive Highway Plan of 2010.

And a year from now, when the Tea Party winds die down, Yoder, like a chameleon, will switch to another ideology. If he wakes up one morning next year and reads that 70% of Johnson County residents suddenly registered as Libertarians, he would run ten stoplights to get to the Johnson County Courthouse in Olathe to switch from Republican to Libertarian. I can't begrudge a man for having ambition.

A few years ago, when I was dealing with a particularly slippery foe in my law practice, my Uncle Bob (the former legislator) asked me: "Marty, have you ever tried to catch an eel?"
"Well, no. What do you mean?" I asked.

"Marty, when I was a boy, I was fishing in the Rattlesnake Creek in Stafford County, and, I don't know how it got there, but there was an eel in the creek," explained Uncle Bob. "I jumped into the creek and grabbed that eel, and I had it held tightly, and then it slipped away from my grip, like magic," he said. "And then I grabbed it again, this time even tighter," said Uncle Bob, as I listened with rapt attention. "And the damn thing escaped my grip again." Seeing an eel in Kansas was a big deal, and Uncle Bob wanted to catch it and take it back to the Keenan farm in a bucket to show everyone, but the eel simply was too slippery to be caught. Uncle Bob walked away from Rattlesnake Creek sad.

Rep. Yoder reminds me of that eel that Uncle Bob told me about. You can't catch him, you can't pin him down. You might as well just walk away and let him have what he wants so badly: a seat in the U.S. Congress.

But let's not give up. Let's try to grab him, slippery as he may be. We might get lucky.