Grant Starrett and Scott DesJarlais are pictured in this composite photo.NASHVILLE - A new direct-mail hit by GOP challenger Grant Starrett that suggests U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais supported federal ID card funding for potential terrorists has the congressman's campaign calling Starrett a liar and a spokesman for the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro calling the attack "racist."
The mailer went out to likely GOP voters in Tennessee's Aug. 4 Republican primary in the 4th Congressional District, The Daily News Journal in Murfreesboro reported this week.
Starrett's mailer features a doctored photo of DesJarlais holding a mock identification card with a man, named "Yusuf Jalil," whose face is obscured except for his eyes by a traditional Arab scarf known as a keffiyeh, the newspaper reported.
The mailer reads "DesJarlais' Dangerous Priorities" and says the South Pittsburg physician "Supports funding ID cards for illegal immigrants" and "Votes against funding for our troops fighting ISIS."
"Tennessee voters know better than to believe anything from Grant Starrett, the lying Californian," DesJarlais campaign spokesman Robert Jameson said in an email. "When Grant loses in August, I would encourage him to apply for an internship in Congressman DesJarlais' office. That will give him an opportunity to work for a proven conservative leader.
"Although," Jameson quickly added, "given the fact he supports allowing President Obama to borrow trillions of dollars to grow government, perhaps he would be a better fit for a Democratic office. I believe his home state congresswoman, Nancy Pelosi, lists internship opportunities on her website."
Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, is a liberal Democrat from San Francisco.
Saleh Sbenaty, a Middle Tennessee State University professor and spokesman for the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, told The Daily News Journal the mailer is "racist.
"People do not support racists or candidates who want to drive a wedge in our community," Sbenaty said. "People will support candidates who build bridges and unite communities."
Starrett also has a television ad running that charges DesJarlais voted against a 2015 defense appropriation bill and thus was leaving the nation in the lurch while it is "under attack by radical Muslims."
In a statement, Starrett said, "I've said it before and I'll say it again: we are at war with radical Islam. Only politically correct cowards refuse to say so. We need to name our enemy, and engage them not only in a battle of arms, but a battle of ideas. Plenty of radical Muslims have been homegrown terrorists whether in Chattanooga, Orlando or Boston."
He said DesJarlais is the one who needs to respond as to why he proposes giving amnesty ID cards to illegal immigrants who may have ties to radical Muslim terrorism. "I want to militarize the border and fully fund our military in this age of terrorism. Congressman DesJarlais should also respond as to why he voted for hundreds of millions of dollars in Obama's military cuts."
While the ad hits illegal immigrants, all of the attackers in Chattanooga, Boston and Orlando attacks either came to the U.S. legally or were born here.
DesJarlais voted last year in support of unsuccessful amendments to an appropriations bill. He and other fiscal conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus charged it boosted the Pentagon's Overseas Contingency Operations funding for U.S. actions in Iraq and Afghanistan but intended to make it a "slush fund" for unrelated spending.
"The fact that Grant is trying to spin that into a vote against the troops shows just how dishonest and unready he is to be a congressman," Jameson said.
Starrett's campaign says the hit on the ID cards for illegal immigrants came from statements DesJarlais made at a spring forum. The DesJarlais campaign says DesJarlais' comments were selectively edited.