Kirk environmental record not so good

Mark Kirk claims that he is such a great friend of the environment that he outscored Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in the latest League of Conservation Voters scorecard.

And it's true. In 2007, the first session of the 110th Congress, Kirk received a score of 90 percent whereas Hillary Clinton scored 73 percent and Barack Obama scored 67 percent.

Here's what Kirk doesn't tell you. The LCV counts not voting as negative, so a missed vote counts as a bad vote.

As some of you may have noticed, Clinton and Obama were campaigning for president in 2007.

Clinton voted pro-environment on every vote she voted, but she missed four votes. Obama voted pro-environment on all but one vote, but he too missed four votes. That's why they scored lower.

But in the 109th Congress, 2005-2006, Kirk received a score of only 53 percent, and in his previous two terms, his scores were 71 percent and 59 percent.

During the same periods, Clinton scored 89 percent, 92 percent and 88 percent. Obama scored 96 percent in his first two years in the Senate.

We deserve a Congressman who will always be strong on the environment, not a Congressman who scores well only when he perceives his chances for re-election are slipping away.

Robert Boros

Mount Prospect