Scott Schwab couldn&rsquo;t stop giggling.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m laughing my &lsquo;boo-hind&rsquo; off about this,&rdquo; he said last week. &ldquo;This is a rush.&rdquo;</p><p>What had Schwab going was the news that longtime Johnson County Sun publisher Steve Rose is running for Congress, a quest Schwab knows something about because he ran, and lost, in 2006 for the same 3rd District seat in Kansas that Rose now seeks.</p><p>Schwab, a Republican state lawmaker from Olathe and a former Johnson County GOP chairman, couldn&rsquo;t get over it. (Anyone know what a &ldquo;boo-hind&rdquo; is?)</p><p>&ldquo;This is where he&rsquo;s playing the idiot,&rdquo; he said of Rose. &ldquo;You cannot insult the feelings of an exasperated people for decades, then go back and ask for their vote.&rdquo;</p><p> Schwab&rsquo;s point? The well-known Rose, a moderate, has been denigrating conservatives in his front-page Johnson County Sun column for years. These folks hail from the same Republican Party that Rose now seeks to represent in November 2010 in what he hopes will be a race against six-term Democratic incumbent Dennis Moore, assuming Moore runs again.</p><p>Just one example: Rose labeled Kris Kobach, who also once sought the 3rd District congressional seat, as a &ldquo;fanatic&rdquo; in a July 29 column.</p><p>&ldquo;Move over Pat Buchanan and Lou Dobbs,&rdquo; Rose wrote. &ldquo;Kris Kobach has joined your anti-immigration fanatics club.&rdquo;</p><p>It&rsquo;s tough to overstate the level of antipathy between Rose and the right, and that&rsquo;s one huge problem Rose faces in his fledgling campaign.</p><p> &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got to be honest,&rdquo; Schwab said. Anti-gay-rights crusader Fred Phelps &ldquo;has a better chance of getting the Republican nomination than Steve Rose right now.&rdquo;</p><p>As Rose himself has pointed out many times, the right votes in big numbers. Moderate Republicans, many of whom will form Rose&rsquo;s base, don&rsquo;t.</p><p>Of Moore&rsquo;s six GOP opponents over the years, only one could be classified as a moderate &mdash; Adam Taff in 2002.</p><p> So even if Rose wins the GOP primary next August, he won&rsquo;t be able to count on conservative backing in a tough race against Moore. In fact, you might expect some of them, Schwab included, to work against him.</p><p>It&rsquo;s a problem any good opinion writer would have. Too many hard-nosed columns produces too many enemies.</p><p>Still, Rose has a chance to wipe that smirk off Schwab&rsquo;s face. There&rsquo;s a path to victory, but it&rsquo;s a tricky one.</p><p>He needs a crowded GOP primary, one in which conservatives knock each other out. If he gets into the general election, Rose needs falling fortunes for President Barack Obama and a still-sour economy to bolster his chances.</p><p>Moore&rsquo;s votes for cap and trade and the unions and his support for the public option on health care will help. They rub many Johnson Countians raw.</p><p>A veteran Democrat, Moore won his last race 56 to 40 percent. He&rsquo;s in a new position in Washington because he&rsquo;s now called on to be a reliable Democratic vote for the majority party.</p><p>Rose is known for blunt pronouncements, so here&rsquo;s one: No cakewalk here, Steve. Winning this race will be tougher than dancing in a minefield.</p><p>&bull;&bull;&bull; </p><p>U.S. Senate hopeful Todd Tiahrt, a Kansas Republican, just sent out a mass mailing that describes his commitment to &ldquo;fight for the rights of the unborn.&rdquo;</p><p>One recipient of the mailing is Scott Roeder of Overland Park, the man accused of killing Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller.</p><p>&ldquo;Oh, great,&rdquo; a campaign spokesman said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll make the vendor aware of it.&rdquo;</p><p>&bull;&bull;&bull; </p><p>Did you see what I just saw? A good week for Mayor Mark Funkhouser.</p><p>He got the MAST ambulance policy he wanted, as well as his two appointees to the city&rsquo;s Tax Increment Financing Commission.</p><p>Funkhouser did one other smart thing.</p><p>Asked after a meeting how it felt to be on the winning side for once, he pointed out there had been other times and added: &ldquo;I am gratified.&rdquo;</p><p>He wisely didn&rsquo;t gloat.</p><p>Miracles still happen.