NEW HAMPSHIRE'S U.S. Reps. Paul Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter have sent overtly political mailing to constituents at taxpayer expense. The taxpayers ought to be reimbursed, and the representatives ought to apologize.

Members of Congress are allowed to send certain types of informational mailings to their constituents and give taxpayers the bill. It's a common practice called "franking," and members of both parties have long done it. Sometimes, though, the mailings cross the line.

Both Hodes and Shea-Porter sent mailers that did more than just inform the people of what was going on in Washington. The mailers took partisan positions and boasted of the representatives' work.

One of Hodes' mailers stated that Washington is "not meeting the needs of our veterans," and that "the Bush administration's proposed budget underfunds veterans' services by 7 percent."

That is a blatant partisan attack.

Shea-Porter sent a Veterans Day mailer that contained four sentences about how her office could help veterans with benefits and other services. Those lines were crammed inside two pages of boasts about her political accomplishments as an advocate for veterans. Conveniently, the mailer was sent only to veterans. We wonder if it was sent only to veterans who were also registered voters.

These mailers were sent to addresses obtained from a mailing list each member's office bought from the state Democratic Party with taxpayer money. So $10,000 of your money ($5,000 each from Hodes and Shea-Porter) went to support partisan Democratic political activity in New Hampshire.

And Hodes and Shea-Porter see nothing wrong with this.

Maybe they were just following liberal House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's marching orders, as usual. Pelosi and her Democratic leadership team devised a strategy last year to use franked mailings to promote House Democrats and try to boost Congress's low approval ratings, The Hill, a Capitol Hill newspaper, reported last year. These mailings certainly fit that strategy.

Is this just another example of Hodes and Shea-Porter ignoring New Hampshire values and rubber-stamping Nancy Pelosi's political agenda? Or did they decide on their own to make taxpayers pay for their political mailings?

Either way, it stinks. They should reimburse the money, apologize, and make sure to keep their political mailings separate from their constituent work from now on.