Posted: Thursday, September 25, 2008 11:26 pm

It’s politics at its worst.

In his effort to unseat U.S. House Rep. John Kline, challenger Steve Sarvi (DFL) is alleging through interviews with various media outlets, on his Web site and through television advertisements that the congressman doesn’t truly care about veterans. As evidence, Sarvi says Kline has suggested the military is spending too much on researching post-traumatic stress disorder.

Kline is a retired Marine colonel who served in the military for 25 years, including as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam and as commander of all aviation forces in Operation Restore Hope in Somalia. So when Sarvi, a recent veteran of the Iraq war himself, questions the congressman’s commitment to the military, it’s a serious allegation.

It’s also one that the evidence shows is patently false.




A transcript of the hearing to which Sarvi refers shows that Kline said it is “very appropriate” for the government to place “a lot” of emphasis on traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Kline’s sin? Asking the question of whether spending so much money on PTSD is pulling too much focus — and money — away from the huge number of leg and arm injuries being suffered in the current campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. That was a fair question to ask considering the variety of serious wounds — mental and physical — our troops are coming home with and have come home with from all our country’s wars.

Even the most hard-core Democrat should be able to look at that transcript and see that Kline doesn’t lack in his commitment and support to veterans of our armed forces. What the Sarvi campaign must be banking on is that no one will take the time to look at the transcript.

No one should have a problem with a political candidate pointing out issues of disagreement that are supported by fact. Everyone, no matter which party he or she belongs to, should look at campaigning like this and frown.