REP Condemns Sierra Club's Misleading Attacks on McCain
Posted on: Thursday, 28 February 2008, 12:00 CST
WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Sierra Club's leaders have distorted Senator John McCain's environmental record with a deliberate campaign of misleading, over-the-top attacks, Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP), a national grassroots conservation organization, said today.
"We are greatly disappointed that the leaders of one of America's great conservation organizations has soiled its legacy by stooping to a partisan smear campaign against Senator McCain's record and good name," REP President Martha Marks said. "The recent barrage of inflammatory rhetoric distorting the Senator's environmental record should dispel any pretense that the Sierra Club's leaders are non-partisan."
Over the past two weeks, the Sierra Club has issued two press releases and sent at least four emails to its members attacking Senator McCain. The barrage has falsely equated votes missed, a result of the demands of the senator's presidential campaign, as reflecting "a history of siding with polluters and special interests." Nothing could be further from the truth.
"Senator McCain has a record of taking on hard issues, fighting special interests, bucking party leaders, and doing what's right regardless of the political consequences," said REP Government Affairs Director David Jenkins.
"The Sierra Club appears to have let blind partisanship trump honest advocacy," Jenkins added. "I find it particularly telling that the Sierra Club's attacks started at the same time that Senator McCain wrapped up the Republican nomination."
Senator McCain has a long record of environmental accomplishments. His leadership on the climate change issue is unequaled by any of the other presidential candidates.
A check into the Sierra Club's press releases over the past year shows no similar attacks on Senator Barack Obama for sponsoring a coal industry-backed bill providing incentives for liquefied coal, or for his vote with the barge industry opposing the McCain-sponsored amendment to require independent screening of Army Corps of Engineers water projects.
"Over the years, we have fought alongside the Sierra Club on many environmental issues. We have repeatedly defended the Club against charges of partisanship. But these scurrilous assaults on Senator McCain--who espouses the conservation ethic of Theodore Roosevelt--are indefensible," said REP Policy Director Jim DiPeso.
Resources: McCain Environmental Record http://www.rep.org/McCain_enviro_record.html Sierra Club Email Alerts http://www.rep.org/SierraClub_emails.html Feb. 14 Letter from REP President to Sierra Club & LCV http://www.rep.org/Feb14_letter.html
Republicans for Environmental Protection
CONTACT: David Jenkins, +1-703-785-9570, or Jim DiPeso, +1-253-740-2066,both of Republicans for Environmental Protection
Web Site: http://www.rep.org/
Source: PRNewswire-USNewswire
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