Roberts hits challenger on graphic X-rays

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kans.) is using the news of his primary challenger’s graphic Facebook posts of patients’ X-rays in an ad against him.

{mosads}“Dr. Milton Wolf’s patients trusted him, but stunning news reports show that Wolf exposed private patient X-rays and other personal information on Facebook — where Wolf relentlessly poked fun at the dead or wounded,” a narrator says in the ad.

“A Kansas City medical ethics expert called Wolf’s behavior ‘beyond alarming’ for a professional in the field of medicine,” the narrator continues, quoting from a local news report.

“If Milton Wolf is so irresponsible as a doctor, how can he possibly be trusted as a U.S. senator?” the ad closes.

Wolf has come under fire in the past week over a report in the Topeka Capital-Journal that outlined a number of posts on Facebook, since deleted, in which the radiologist uploaded graphic X-rays and included off-color commentary.

The candidate apologized for the postings, but experts say he may have violated ethics rules.

It’s a problem for Wolf, as he’s made his medical background a central focus in his bid to unseat Roberts. He charges that Roberts hasn’t done enough to prevent or dismantle ObamaCare, and that, as a doctor, he’d be in a better position to tackle healthcare reform.

But the Facebook posts, and recent news that the radiology company where Wolf works is embroiled in a lawsuit alleging price-fixing, may start to undermine that advantage.

The new ad makes it clear that Roberts’s campaign feels the Facebook postings are damning both in terms of his credibility on healthcare and his character.

Still, Roberts is considered the most vulnerable he’s ever been because of recent revelations that he doesn’t live in the home he owns in Kansas, which Wolf and his allies say is further evidence Roberts is out of touch with the state.