In Minnesota the Democratic Party has undertaken a campaign to suppress two television advertisements giving voice to the sentiments of Iraq war veterans and Gold Star Families who support the war. Brian Melendez is the chairman of the Minnesota Democratic Party. This past Thursday Melendez called a press conference and condemned the first of the two advertisements -- the one featuring the veterans -- as "un-American, untruthful and a lie."

The two advertisements can be viewed here. The first of the two ads is devoted to the Iraq war veterans; the second to the Gold Star Families, featuring Merrilee Carlson of St. Paul. Mrs. Carlson's son Michael was killed in Iraq last year; the Wall Street Journal published Michael's "credo" this past Memorial Day.

In Minnesota the mask has fallen from the Democratic Party. It has condemned the message of Lt. Col. Bob Stephenson and the other veterans supporting the mission in Iraq as "un-American." Yet it has gone beyond its outrageous condemnation of the ads. It has actually sought to suppress the message of the featured war veterans and Gold Star Families, emailing Party members and urging them to contact television stations demanding "the removal of the ads."

What do Democrats elsewhere think of their Party's campaign condemning the servicemen and Gold Star Families in the ads as "un-American"? Does Minnesota Democratic Senate candidate Amy Klobuchar agree? Does Minnesota Congressional candidate Coleen Rowley agree? Do Democratic officials and officeholders in the rest of the country agree? Does Brian Melendez speak for them?

Minneapolis Star Tribune columnist Nick Coleman has now devoted two hysterical columns to condemnations of the advertisements. Coleman's first column made a basic error of fact as a result of its reliance on a far-left Web site and cited the testimony of a Kerry delegate to the 2004 Democratic convention as a "nonpartisan" source. (John fisked the column here.)

Coleman's second column fastened on "the Delores Kesterson issue" -- attacking the Gold Star Families ad for presenting the stepmother of Erik Kesterson in lieu of his mother. For this bizarre point Coleman relied without attribution on his friend "Hesiod"at Daily Kos. Coleman overlooked fellow St. Paulite Merilee Carlson -- the genuine biological mother of Michael Carlson -- in this rant.

Lt. Col. Stephenson is the co-chair of Minnesota Families United for Our Troops and Their Mission. Col. Stephenson is featured in the first of the two advertisements in issue. On Saturday John interviewed Col. Stephenson on the Northern Alliance Radio Network. You can listen to the interview here.

The Democratic Party has officially pronounced that Col. Stephenson and his ads are "un-American." That such a thing could happen is almost beyond belief -- a Marine officer with more than ten years of active duty labeled "un-American" for supporting America's foreign policy -- but it is nevertheless true. And attention must be paid.

To our knowledge, not a single Democratic officeholder, in Minnesota or elsewhere, has disassociated himself from the Minnesota Democratic Party's position that it is "un-American" to support our government's policies in Iraq, and that expressions of such support should be banned from the airwaves.

In today's Star Tribune, Katherine Kersten breaks the silence of the Minnesota media on the Democrats' disgrace: "The DFL's attack on TV war ad is hypocritical." Kersten writes:

Unless you've been hiding in a cave for the past few years, you know that Minnesotans disagree about the Iraq war -- about whether our military should be there, and how the war is going.
The members of Minnesota Families United, a grass-roots group made up mostly of the relatives of soldiers who have died in Iraq or are serving there, welcome debate on the war. Marine Lt. Col. Bob Stephenson of Woodbury is the group's co-chairman. When he returned from Iraq in March 2005, he was shocked at what he viewed as inaccurate and overly negative media coverage of the war. But Stephenson took it in stride. He says he put his life on the line in Iraq precisely to protect freedom of speech.

So he is baffled by the reaction of the DFL Party and some in the media to a TV ad about the war in which he recently appeared. The DFL has branded the ad "un-American, untruthful and a lie." The DFL isn't bothering to present its version of the facts in an ad of its own. Instead, party chairman Brian Melendez launched a campaign to silence Stephenson and others who appeared in the ad. He demanded that the ad be pulled from the airwaves, so Minnesotans couldn't hear its message and make up their minds themselves.

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Are Stephenson and Carlson un-American? I suggest that the DFL itself deserves that label, for attempting to silence the speech of fellow citizens with whom it disagrees. If Republicans employed the same tactic, the media would be howling. But the silence here has been deafening.

I guess free speech doesn't apply to un-American folks such as Bob Stephenson, and his supporters in Minnesota Families United.

One more time: "Are Stephenson and Carlson un-American? I suggest that the DFL itself deserves that label, for attempting to silence the speech of fellow citizens with whom it disagrees. If Republicans employed the same tactic, the media would be howling. But the silence here has been deafening."