A funny thing happened on Democrat Chad Taylor’s way to withdraw from the Kansas Senate race. It brings to mind the lyrics from the epic song “Hotel California” by the Eagles: “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.” It seems Taylor is a prisoner of his own device — with the help of some fellow dim-witted Democrats.

Here is what is happening in the Kansas Senate race. Republican Senator Pat Roberts, seeking a fourth term, is being challenged for the Senate seat that he has held since 1997. On August 5, Democrats voted in their primary to put Chad Taylor on the ballot to face off against Roberts. Taylor is a prosecutor from northeast Kansas, and from the outset it was unlikely that he would be able to beat Roberts. Kansas has had exclusively Republican Senators since 1932, although they have not been so exclusive with the governorship. Witness the disgraced Kathleen Sebelius, former Governor of the Sunflower State (2003-2009), who resigned from the top spot at HHS after the miserably failed launch of the insurance exchange on the Healthcare.gov website a year ago. But I digress.

Chad Taylor was not the only one who sought to unseat Senator Roberts. Greg Orman, a former-Democrat-now-turned-Independent, also entered the Senate race. in early June, before the major parties held their primaries. Orman began to draw votes from both of the two major party candidates, but particularly from the 78-year-old Roberts. After studying the polls, national Democrat leaders (e.g., Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill) determined that it would be beneficial to the entire Democrat party if Taylor would commit harakiri with respect to his Senate race candidacy and take one for the team.”Drop out,” they directed Taylor.

Taylor gave the directive plea from his party some thought. On Wednesday night, September 3, just minutes before the deadline, Taylor succumbed to the pressure and scurried down to submit his withdrawal papers. (Aside: We can only speculate on what cushy compensation he was promised for taking the fall. We may not know until the embers die down. There is always a quid pro quo. Just ask Bob McDonnell.)

The hope of Democrats is that Orman will be able to add Taylor’s supporters to his own, thus surpassing the support that polls are showing Roberts can muster. But this is where the best laid plans of mice and men went a little wrong. It seems Kansas law has a provision with regard to withdrawing from a U.S. Senate race after winning the primary. The candidate must claim that he is “incapable of fulfilling the duties of office” in order to be removed from the ballot. Taylor made no such assertion when he submitted his withdrawal papers. Indeed, he would have to be a moron to make such an assertion, as that would quite likely affect him in later endeavors if he sought another position — such as one promised by the Democrat machine in exchange for withdrawing from the race.

In addition, the law also has a provision that if a candidate withdraws, the party must replace him on the ballot. So that could require the Kansas Democrat party to fill in a candidate, and likely draw low-information voters back to the Democratic candidate since many voters look for the “D” beside a candidate’s name and vote for that candidate no matter what. So, Democrats would have to get out the don’t-vote-Democrat drive to stop the low-information voters from ruining their plan.

Finally, last night, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a Republican, announced that–in accord with Kansas law–Chad Taylor’s name will remain on the ballot for the November election since he did not assert that he was “incapable” of serving as Senator if he was elected. Taylor and other Democrats are crying “Foul!” and alleging partisanship on the part of the Secretary of State. Taylor has vowed to fight the decision, saying that the SOS told him he could withdraw his name if he did what the SOS told him to do. It looks like Taylor favors partisanship when it favors his cause. But when it favors his opponent, not so much.

Mr. Taylor has checked out. It remains to be seen whether the Democrat Machine can help him leave the rat race.