May 28, 2008 - 10:02am
Reichert a green Republican
By Bryan Bissell
Category: HouseTags: Susan Collins, Green, Environment, CD8, Dave Reichert, Doc Hastings, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, WA-08, Christopher Shays
Republicans for Environmental Protection, a non-profit interest group dedicated to preserving "both our environment and our economy for current and future generations of Americans," today awarded U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Auburn), along with Rep. Chris Shays (R-Conn.) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) with the honor of "Greenest Republican in Congress".
"We are very proud of the environmental leadership that we are seeing from our top-scoring lawmakers. They are playing a crucial role in safeguarding our environment and building the bipartisan support necessary to address our most pressing environmental challenges," said REP President Martha Marks in a press release. "Keeping these GOP environmental champions in office should be a priority for anyone who cares about responsible stewardship of our environment."
Their scorecard, found here, shows Reichert with a better than perfect score of 103, up from his previous three year average of 77. The scoring was based on a slate of the fifteen House bills the group deemed to be most important on legislation pertaining to issues such as energy policy and protection of public lands. Each yes vote garnered six and a half points toward one's final score.
The other members of Washington's Republican delegation did not score so well. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Colville) scored a 13, and Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Pasco) scored a 7.
The group also says Reichert has "become a champion of America's parks and wilderness heritage" for his co-sponsorship of the Wild Sky Wilderness Act, which is also the boost that gave him the extra three points on his score.
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I challenge Reichert boosters to explain exactly what makes him qualified to serve in Congress, and what exactly he has accomplished in office.
Reichert has manipulated his voting record
Actually, Reichert should have scored less. The first bill on their list, HR 6, was one of a great many (http://www.kirkdorffer.com/ontheroadto2008/110thReichertFlippedVotes.htm...) that Reichert flipped his vote after opposing the bill all the way up to it. That's not real support. Without that single vote he drops from the top and the honor of "Greenest Republican in Congress" (which is hardly an achievement anyway given how terrible Republicans have been on environmental issues).
The vast majority of the time Reichert has flipped his support on the final passage vote he has been doing so exactly so he can prop up his credentials so that when these types of rankings come out he gets a more moderate score.
Reichert is on record as saying that party leadership tells him "to vote a certain way". These votes are what he is talking about. As one of a number of endangered Republicans this election season, Reichert is clearly taking self-preservation votes on these bills because his vote won't decide the outcome and is therefore expendable. Party leadership has essentially given him the green light to break ranks for political expediency because the bill will be passing anyway, as all off these bills have.
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