League Of Conservation Voters Sells Out Again

LCV Climate Change poster child, Susan Collins

The Establishment-oriented LGBT organization, HRC, endorsed Republican Senator Susan Collins, who has an record of studiously ignoring gay equality issues in Maine and voting precisely 50% of the time with conservatives and 50% of the time with normal senators on gay issues in DC. Yesterday Digby explained the tragedy of HRC abandoning one of the LGBT communities most dedicated advocates, Shenna Bellows, on behalf of Collins.

They say that no good deed goes unpunished and nothing illustrates the truth of that old trope more vividly that the Human Rights Campaign endorsing Maine Senator Susan Collins over her Democratic opponent, the stalwart defender of human rights and civil liberties, Shenna Bellows. It wasn't the first time Republicans have been unjustly rewarded with endorsements from national liberal organizations, unfortunately. But there are few Republicans who have been more lauded by people for whom she has consistently done so little than the bucket of lukewarm water known as Susan Collins.

This endorsement was particularly galling. Shenna Bellows is not just another Democrat who supports marriage equality. She has devoted her life to expanding civil rights and civil liberties. In her capacity as the Director of the Maine ACLU she helped lead the way for marriage equality in Maine and was instrumental in getting the Maine Human Rights Act passed. It's a truly bold piece of legislation, one of the strongest anti-discrimination laws in the country, which Bellows promises to bring to the national level. She has said:

The important thing we learned in Maine was to aim big and be persistent. Frankly, Congress could benefit from our example. The debate in Congress has focused for too long on weak versions of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which only covers employment decisions and now has such a big religious-exemption loophole that many activists no longer support the bill. As Ian Thompson wrote for Slate in April, the loophole "opens the door for religiously affiliated organizations to engage in employment discrimination against LGBT people-- for any reason." That's not the stuff big civil-rights advances are made of.

I'm proud to say we've done better in Maine, and I'll do better in Washington. We need a national Human Rights Act along the lines of the Maine Human Rights Act. We need to outlaw discrimination in employment, housing, credit, public accommodations and educational opportunity on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation-- once and for all, nationwide, no exceptions. Sen. Al Franken has done good work on this issue, and I can't wait to join him. The LGBT community isn't alone in worrying that its Washington allies are aiming too low.

Many immigration-reform groups rightly wonder not only why Republicans won't support them but why too many Democrats supported a weaker House bill in this Congress than the one they introduced when they were in the majority. We can't fall victim to lower expectations or lesser ambitions, no matter who controls what branch of government. Good policy is good policy, and fighting the wrong legislative fights won't get us where we need to be.

That's the kind of leadership we need so desperately in Washington --- leadership that understands that we are all in this together. If you agree, you can donate to Shenna Bellows' campaign here.

You will not be surprised to learn that Senator Collins is all for that "religious exemption." And her definition of courage is to wait until the nation has largely moved forward before she reluctantly leads from behind: it was only last week that she could summon the nerve to support marriage equality even in principle, much less to act to make it a reality.

As you can see from Shenna Bellows' comments, her approach to basic human rights and liberties stems from her clear, strong set of principles. She doesn't put her finger in the wind, she kicks up a storm and makes things happen. Maine would not have the strong protections and rights available to LGBT citizens that it has today if not for Shenna Bellows. Yet the thanks she gets from the National Human Rights Campaign is an endorsement for her opponent. With friends like these…

Moments after Digby's post appeared, another DC Establishment suck-up group like HRC, League of Conservation Voters, stabbed Shenna in the back and endorsed Collins, just as they had done in 2008 when they backed her against a much more environmentally friendly Democrat, Rep. Tom Allen. Collins won and continued voting against the issues most important to LCV want. Perhaps LCV donors will wake up some day and realize that scam LCV has become.

According to ProgressivePunch, Collins has a lifetime crucial vote score of 39.77 on environmental issues that have come before the Senate. Yes, she's better than Ted Cruz. Is that why LCV donors send checks to the organization? Shenna responded to expected endorsement by reminding LCV that they had just placed Maine State Sen. Troy Jackson on their Dirty Dozen List for a record that isn't even as bad as Collins'!

"I am running for United States Senate because we need bolder leadership to confront climate change before it's too late," Bellows said. "Climate change is one of most serious threats confronting our nation. Protecting the status quo won't protect the environment for the next generation. I've been a consistent voice for more renewable energy, stronger clean air and water standards and an end to the Keystone XL Pipeline project, and I'll proudly stack my environmental values against Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins and any other Washington Republican."

"You have to ask why in this race a lifetime D grade merits recognition," said Portland City Councilman and former State Rep. Jon Hinck. "It's disappointing to see LCV fall into the incumbent protection trap. Half-a-loaf environmentalism is not half good enough. Our air and water don't care about political parties and legacy ties. Every candidate should be considered on the merits of what he or she would do to keep our environment clean. Energy and global warming challenges make this a critical time for Maine and the entire country. Shenna Bellows, unlike the incumbent, has the vision and drive to meet those challenges."

A Huffington Post article last week pointed out many that Maine environmentalists objected to some groups' continued support of Collins despite her low lifetime rating. Emily Figdor, the director of Environment Maine, was quoted in that story saying Collins "has not had a consistent record on climate change. It's high time she really stands up and starts to lead on the issue."

In 2011 Collins introduced the EPA Regulatory Relief Act, which a June 24, 2012, op-ed in the Lewiston Sun-Journal pointed out was "roundly condemned by environmentalists as an attempt to gut EPA regulations intended to clean up the nation’s dirtiest industrial power plants-- many of them fueled by biomass, and several right here in Maine. She then tried to attach her legislation to the unrelated transportation bill [in the spring of 2012], an effort that only narrowly failed."

As far back as 2009, Collins led the fight to eliminate tens of billions of dollars in clean energy funding from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. Among other cuts, her plan would have eliminated:

• $4.5 billion in renewable energy loan guarantees at the Department of Energy
• $1.4 billion in research grants and facilities construction at the National Science Foundation
• $1 billion from energy efficiency and renewable energy projects at the Department of Energy
• $300 million in laboratory upgrades at the Department of Agriculture.

If you live in Maine, you have an opportunity to vote this November to replace Collins with Shenna Bellows. If you live anywhere else in the U.S., you can still help-- right here. Yesterday, Sean Sullivan explained to Washington Post readers how Collins can keep winning in Maine, but it's a trend that we can stop… now.

The endorsements Collins just won amount to a lesson about the power of incumbency. She is very popular back home and considered a safe bet to win reelection. By offering her their support, groups from the left such as LCV and HRC can bolster the odds that she will support their causes in the future. By opposing Collins and supporting a long-shot incumbent against her, they would do themselves no favors in the long run, assuming she wins another term.

…The general election threat-- albeit a minor one at this point-- presented by Bellows may have forced Collins to stake out a harder position on gay marriage now and roll out the LCV endorsement sooner than she otherwise would. But she was always going to emphasize her crossover appeal sooner or later.

Craven groups like HRC and LCV empower Collins and help her lay claim to the term moderate, but her friend and ally Rick Santorum put it best when he told right-wing donors that Collins may vote moderate sometimes, but at least she is a team player who "always plays with the team and never plays against the conservative side even if she has to give the liberals a vote because she's from Maine."