George Allen Named to 2006 "Dirty Dozen" List
By: Lowell
Published On: 9/21/2006 4:37:12 PM
From The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) comes confirmation that Allen's a disaster for the environment. But, then again, we knew that already.
LCV Notes Sen. Allen Lacks The Conservation Ethic of His State
WASHINGTON, DC - The League of Conservation Voters (LCV), the independent political voice for the environment, today named Virginia Sen. George Allen to its 2006 "Dirty Dozen" list, in recognition of his truly terrible environmental voting record in the United States Senate.
Sen. Allen, whose lifetime LCV score is a paltry 1%, received a whopping 5% in 2006 after garnering consecutive zeros for the 107th and 108th sessions of Congress.
"Senator George Allen has yet to meet a bill sponsored by Big Oil that he didn't like," said LCV President Gene Karpinski. "He voted for the 2005 energy bill - arguably the most anti-environmental legislation to come out of Congress in a generation - thereby showering already profitable oil companies with billions in taxpayer subsidies. Senator Allen could not even bring himself to vote for common sense solutions like making cars go further on a gallon of gas."
In addition to Sen. Allen, LCV also added the following members to the Dirty Dozen today: Rep. Dan Boren (OK), Rep. J.D. Hayworth (AZ) and Rep. Deborah Pryce (OH).
Having already selected the first 10 members of the group, including one selected in LCV's first-ever online poll for the "Dirty Dozen," Sen. Allen joins Senators Conrad Burns (MT), Rick Santorum (PA), Jim Talent (MO), and Representatives Henry Cuellar (TX), Katherine Harris (FL), Richard Pombo (CA), Charles Taylor (NC) and Heather Wilson (NM) on the 2006 Dirty Dozen list. Representatives Tom Delay (TX) and Bob Ney (OH) were placed in a separate category following their respective decisions not to seek re-election.
"His abysmal voting record on the most basic legislation to protect our air, water and land, as well as his refusal to vote to help create a new energy future based on renewable and clean technologies shows just how out-of-touch he is with everyday Virginians," Mr. Karpinski said.
Over the last decade, LCV's "Dirty Dozen" list has held elected officials accountable for their votes and actions by highlighting some of the worst environmental records in Congress. Since its inception in 1996, more than half of the candidates named to the "Dirty Dozen" have subsequently been voted out of office.
To learn more about the Dirty Dozen and to view the LCV's National Environmental Scorecard, visit www.lcv.org.
Lowell Feld is Netroots Coordinator for the Jim Webb for US Senate Campaign. The ideas expressed here belong to Lowell Feld alone, and do not represent those of Jim Webb, his advisors, staff, or supporters.
Comments
I'm sure (mkfox - 9/21/2006 4:54:51 PM)
Allen feels right at home being grouped with lunatics like Burns, DeLay, Ney, Harris and Santorum anyway ;)
O/T but amusing... (Loudoun County Dem - 9/21/2006 7:21:03 PM)
...sorry for going off topic but I had to share these somewhere...
First, Allen's education ad was just on and I burst out laughing when I heard the tag line... ...'tomorrows great discoveries'!!! (Little did we know)...
Second, the money line from his mom in the Washington Post Article... “His favorite time of the week is when he comes home, sits on his riding mower, by himself and mows his lawn and no one is asking him questions. (Indeed)...
Wait a minute---- (AERO - 9/21/2006 11:16:14 PM)
Man, was I confused. I thought it said League of
Conservative voters and I was thinking that doesn't make sense. Not that George Allen consistently voting in favor of this administration's policy to spend government money like a drunken sailor in a foreign port makes sense, either. As you were. Carry on.
Bad on Environment=Corrupt? Sierra Club Speaks . . . (PM - 9/22/2006 9:51:23 AM)
The Sierra Club says that "some of the most anti-environmental members of Congress are also ethically challenged"
http://www.sierraclu...
SIX YEARS INTO GEORGE W. BUSH'S PRESIDENCY, anti-environmental extremism has become Capitol Hill's standard operating procedure. Hardly a major bill goes by that someone doesn't saddle with a rider to drill the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. ***
Temperature taker for this hothouse is the League of Conservation Voters, whose annual scorecard is the generally accepted measure of environmental bona fides.
In a crowd like that, it's tough to stand out. And yet many lawmakers do so by crowning their environmental callousness with good old-fashioned financial hanky-panky. Former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.)--who called the EPA "the gestapo of government"--has been indicted and forced to resign. Ex-representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.) has been convicted and is serving the longest jail term ever handed down to a member of Congress, and many others are under investigation. ***
What's the connection between a bad environmental voting record and corruption? Follow the money. Votes against clean air and water are not cast out of antipathy to summer zephyrs and babbling brooks but to help some favored campaign contributor make an extra buck. For legislators willing to sacrifice wildlands or public health to corporate profits, it's not that big a step to feel entitled to a cut of those profits--especially when they see their former colleagues and aides cashing in with lucrative K Street lobbying jobs. Not everyone with a poor LCV rating is on the take, of course, but of all those implicated in the current scandals swirling around Washington, D.C., none has a good environmental record. In fact, all but a handful fall among the worst of the worst. ***
George Allen is not on the Sierra ethically challenged list. Let's hope he stays off.
