Washington Bureau Correspondent Kevin Diaz has a story today about a principled and controversial stand by Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., who is sacrificing the immediate needs or desires of his district for the greater good. (Here’s Kevin’s story.)

Kline, who represents the Twin Cities’s southern suburbs and exurbs, is passing up the chance to grab tens of millions of dollars in federal spending on projects in his district. He says this just-say-no approach is a start in bringing restraint to federal pork-barrel spending.

Naturally, not everyone in his district appreciates the fiscal diet he’s enforced on them. In all probability, the surplus money isn’t saved or used to pay down the federal debt; it simply means there’s more for everybody else.

Rep. John Kline

It also means that Kline’s constituents may feel good about leading by example, with a big $0 beside the Second District on the list of federal earmarks sought by their congressman. But no doubt the residents of Rep. Jim Oberstar’s district in northeastern Minnesota feel quite content, too, with the hundreds of millions of dollars the Democrat has brought home.

Here’s Kline’s rationale for the position he adopted this year. It’s from a website called Carver County GOP, which ran a Kline column in October that included this section:
“Last week, my colleagues and I led a charge in the House of Representatives renewing efforts to crack down on wasteful pork-barrel spending by signing a petition asking for a vote on legislation that would ensure all taxpayer-funded earmarks are publicly disclosed…

“Unfortunately, the earmarking system is broken and has become in large part a wasteful process that puts seniority and special interests ahead of need…

“In January, at the beginning of the 110th Congress, I decided not to submit any earmark requests until integrity is restored to the earmarking process.”

If you want to learn more about earmarks, the Taxpayers for Common Sense has pulled together databases of the earmark requests in each spending bill. For some bills, such as the Defense Appropriations bill, which contains more than 1,300 earmark requests, you can even read the letter the member of Congress wrote requesting the funding.

You can help TCS research the specific projects through its EarmarkWatch.org site.

Here’s a column that Republican Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio wrote in June, alleging that the Democratic “reform” bill on earmarks was really a slieght of hand.

In August, the Club for Growth said that Kline was one of 16 members of congress to vote against all 50 anti-pork amendments. The group’s RePORK Card can be found here.

Also, the National Taxpayers Union said that Kline was one of 15 House members who had sought zero earmarks. It listed Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) as the leading requester, with $180 million. Here’s the list of the biggest requesters and those who sought zero.

Is Kline doing the right thing? Or, by not playing the Washington game, is he merely harming his constituents, while having nothing to show for their pain?

Minnesota Democrats yesterday swiped at two Republicans for voting against a $105.6 billion bill that included funding for the I-35W bridge.

The Republicans — U.S. Reps. John Kline and Michele Bachmann — said they voted “no” because the bill contains excessive spending, which President Bush has threatened to veto.

Rep. John Kline

Is the Democrats’ criticism fair? Are Kline and Bachmann guilty of failing to deliver on their pledges to ensure rapid federal assistance for the bridge reconstruction, as Democrats allege?

Or are Kline and Bachmann showing strong spines — standing on the principle of containing federal spending, while knowing that their votes would open them to easy criticism?

Here’s Washington correspondent Kevin Diaz’s story. Among other things, it points out that Kline and Bachmann have signed onto a separate bill for the bridge funding.

Here’s what the DFL chair, Brian Melendez, said in a press release:
“We’ve gotten pretty used to Michele Bachmann and John Kline putting President Bush and special interests ahead of our state’s most urgent needs, but this vote goes beyond ridiculous — it’s callous. After all the lip service they’ve given to those projects, including the Northstar rail line in Bachmann’s own district, you’ve got to be kidding.
“Their mindless, lock-step partisanship and blind loyalty to a failed president is breathtaking. There’s no other way to put this: Michele Bachmann’s and John Kline’s hypocrisy is an embarrassment to Minnesota.”

Rep. Michele Bachmann

Here are some other things to consider. In voting “no,” Bachmann not only voted against the bridge funding, but also against funding for a couple projects in her own district — for the Northstar commuter line and for a bus system. Does that give her immunity to the DFL charges?

For another perspective, here are some of the things that Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., celebrated in the bill — some in his First District, some nationwide:

First Distrtict
$500,000 for Hwy. 14 from Waseca to Owatonna.
$350,000 for Hwy. 14 from North Mankato to New Ulm.
$300,000 for a MnDOT garage facility in Albert Lea.

Nationwide
$40.2 billion for maintaining or improving highways.
$9.65 billion for commuter or light rail.
$65 million above the president’s request for next-generation air traffic control technology.
$10 million to help small communities attract commercial air service.

Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., says the bill is not a budget-buster, because the Democratic Congress is adhering to the pay-as-you go rule — offsetting spending increases in one area with spending cuts in another.

But the Wall Street Journal reports in this story today about the spending battle between Bush and the Democrats: “The measure, which adds $3 billion in discretionary appropriations above President Bush’s budget requests, reflects a 6% increase in overall spending for the new fiscal year that began Oct. 1.”

So, who do you think is playing politics here?

With Veterans Day approaching, the intersection of politics and Iraq veterans is cropping up.

This week a chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War was denied permission to march in a Veterans Day Parade in Long Beach, Calif., on the grounds that they don’t reflect the spirit of the parade. Here the organization’s take on the dispute. Here’s a story from the Long Beach Press Telegram.

Ashwin Madia

And yesterday, I received two press releases that sounded the alarm about politicians playing politics with Iraq veterans — and which themselves sounded awfully political.

Vets for Freedom lashed out at Congress for failing to pass legislation boosting health care and other benefits for Iraq and Afghanistan war vets. The group is established as a non-partisan organization, but like many other 527-registered groups, its political affiliation is thinly veiled. The left-leaning SourceWatch describes the Vets for Freedom ties to the GOP here.

Closer to home, the Constitution Party of Minnesota issued a release complaining that the two major parties merely use veterans “as political pawns.” It then went on to use the upcoming Veterans Day to announce it was launching a three month campaign to honor veterans, followed by an “election-season kick-off event to be held in February.”

Another interesting factoid to note: although the Iraq war is a burning issue in the presidential campaign, none of the front-running presidential candidates have served in the military, with the notable exception of Sen. John McCain.

In August, Sen. Barack Obama picked up an endorsement from the only Iraq veteran serving in Congress, Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.).

Steve Sarvi

In Minnesota, two Iraq veterans are running for Congress. Marine Corps veteran Ashwin Madia of Plymouth is running as a Democrat for retiring Rep. Jim Ramstad’s Third District seat. Madia, who was a captain in the Marine Corps., served as a judge advocate in Baghdad.

In the Second District, Steve Sarvi is running as a Democrat against Rep. John Kline, himself a retired Marine. Sarvi, a former mayor of Watertown, served in Iraq for 16 months with the Minnesota National Guard.

Addendum: Moments after I posted this item, I checked my e-mail and found yet another example of cashing in on Veterans Day for political gain. The e-mail was from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and it gave failing grades to Republican Sen. Norm Coleman for his votes on veterans’ health care.

Rep. John Kline

We’ll be recording a new Pig’s Eye Podcast this morning. We hope to have it posted by about 10 a.m. Once we get in front of the microphones, anything is possible, but here’s what we expect to be talking about.

A fugitive on the lam takes the time — bless his felonious little heart — to post a comment on Politically Connected about our podcast.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s enviable 59% job approval rating.

More stirrings in the Minnesota congressional races, including an intriguing Democrat stepping forward to run against John Kline.

The U.S. Senate race, where Al Franken edged out Sen. Norm Coleman in the third-quarter money race.

By the way, if you have a question for the Pig’s Eye Podcast crew — Doug Tice, Lori Sturdevant and me — or want us to address a certain topic, leave a post here, or send an e-mail to politicallyconnected@startribune.com.