HRC Update

Chris Crain, former editor of the Washington Blade, has some things to say about HRC's extremely thin skin when it comes to basic questions of accountability, transparency and bipartisanship. The Blade under Crain was among the first to bust HRC's numbers scam on its actual "membership" a few years ago. Meanwhile, the Blade itself has a new article on the group's $26.4 million building and the cool $160,000 they paid last year to an executive director who quit in 2004. HRC coughed up the actual numbers after this blog raised questions. Money quote:

City records show that the purchase price for the building itself in April 2002 was $9.8 million. Rienfierd said HRC financed the purchase and renovation costs through a $22 million bridge loan from a local bank at an interest rate of 1.4 percent plus the monthly adjusted London Interbank Offered Rate, known as LIBOR. The Wall Street Journal listed that rate at 5.32 percent as of last week, bringing HRC’s mortgage interest to about 6.72 percent for this month. Rienfierd said the rate has been considerably lower during the past three years.

But if they'd invested that money in something else instead (like, er, fighting for gay rights) and paid rent? Who knows? A civil rights organization that has very, very few legislative or organizational achievements at a critical time in the battle for gay equality should not, in my view, be splurging $26 million on a plush new building. It's waste like that that puts smiles on the faces of the religious right - not scrutiny from the blogosphere.

One last word for a while: HRC has said it plans to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and a hate crimes law in this Congressional session. They are not pressing for immigration reform or military service (gay soldiers can wait until Hillary decides it's safe to support them). So let's give them a chance to show what they can do with all those millions of gay people's money. Meanwhile, I'll keep keeping them honest. We've already gotten more info out of them than they have offered in quite a while. Maybe we might even prod them to pass some pro-gay legislation. You never know.