Liberal PAC CREDO Action is championing a petition pressuring House Speaker John Boehner to return Reagan International Airport to its original name, Washington International Airport. The petition is in response to Boehner’s outcry against President Obama renaming Mount McKinley to the native Denali.
The petition states: “Boehner announced he is ‘deeply disappointed’ in President Obama’s decision. But in 1998, John Boehner and his fellow Republicans in Congress weren’t so hesitant to remove a president’s name from a public landmark when they decided to rename Washington National Airport after Ronald Reagan.”
Boehner has said that he is disappointed with President Obama for removing President McKinley’s name from the mountain, mostly because he believes the 19th century president earned the honor through his service to the country in the Civil War.
“There is a reason President McKinley’s name has served atop the highest peak in North America for more than 100 years, and that is because it is a testament to his great legacy. He made a difference for his constituents… and he led this nation to prosperity and victory in the Spanish-American War,” Boehner said in his statement.
The bill, passed in 1998 by a Republican majority and signed by President Clinton, was part of a celebration of President Reagan’s 87th birthday. According to The Washington Post, Michael Reagan, son of President Reagan, spoke before the US House and Senate in support of congressmen passing the bill, in order to “win one more for the gipper.”
The petition goes on to say that Obama’s renaming of the mountain is a “small but important step for recognizing the history, culture, and human rights of America’s Native Americans when he decided to rename America’s tallest mountain, Mount McKinley in Alaska, to its original name of Denali.”
The PAC, a subsidiary of CREDO Mobile and Sprint Mobile, is well-known for their far-left political lobbying. In 2014, they poured $2.5 million into five Senate races where a Democrat victory was not secured. CREDO has publicly decried the Keystone XL Pipeline and supported gay marriage.
So far, the petition has earned 66,000 signatures, 89% of its goal of 75,000.