Nancy Pelosi

Democrats Gleeful At Prospect Of Running Against Gingrich

Brian Beutler | December 5, 2011, 5:05AM

Newt Gingrich

There's no better illustration of how ecstatic Democrats are about Newt Gingrich leading the GOP primary pack than Nancy Pelosi's strategic silence.

Pelosi knows more about Gingrich than perhaps any other major national political figure. She was a senior Democrat when Gingrich was House Speaker, served on the ethics committee that investigated Gingrich for tax cheating and campaign finance violations, and even cut a 2008 ad with him on the importance of addressing global climate change.

But when TPM asked her to talk a bit about his recent ascent and the possibility that he'll be the GOP nominee, she mostly demurred.

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Climate Change

Climate Change Deniers Abandon 'Befuddled Warmist' Physicist Who Came Around On Global Warming

Brian Beutler | October 22, 2011, 8:14AM

ribeiroantonio / Shutterstock

Climate change deniers thought they had an ally in Richard Muller, a popular physics professor at UC Berkeley.

Muller didn't reject climate science per se, but he was a skeptic, and a convenient one for big polluters and conservative anti-environmentalists -- until Muller put their money where his mouth was, and launched the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project, in part with a grant from the Charles G. Koch foundation.

After extensive study, he's concluded that the existing science was right all along -- that the earth's surface is warming, at an accelerating rate. But instead of second-guessing themselves, his erstwhile allies of convenience are now abandoning him.

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Bill Clinton

Clinton Says GOP Climate Deniers Making The U.S. 'Look Like A Joke'

David Taintor | September 20, 2011, 2:59PM

Former President Bill Clinton

Former President Bill Clinton has some tough words for Republican climate-change deniers: quit making the U.S. "look like a joke."

Kicking off his Clinton Global Initiative in New York, the former president said Americans should make it "politically unacceptable" for people to engage in climate change denial, according to Politico.

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Al Gore

Al Gore: Climate Change Is A 'Human' -- Not 'Political' -- Issue

David Taintor | September 16, 2011, 6:15AM

Former Vice President Al Gore

Climate change is a "human" -- not "political" -- issue, former Vice President Al Gore said Thursday at an event concluding his 24-hour Climate Reality Project intended to convert skeptics of global warming.

In order to have an intelligent conversation about climate change, Gore said, we need to "to start with an acceptance of what the reality is that we are actually facing." Gore compared the controversy and skepticism over global warming to tobacco companies that would manufacture public doubt about the harm of their product.

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Global Warming

What Consensus? Poll Shows Misconceptions About Scientific Agreement On Climate Change

David Teich | September 15, 2011, 2:30PM

ribeiroantonio / Shutterstock

While Republican candidates for president champion far right causes to try to capture the tea party vote in the primary, each will have to worry about moving back to the center should they win the nomination. On issues like entitlement reform, this may cause trouble. But when it comes to global warming, they might not have to scramble back to the middle: They may already be there.

According to a poll by the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, while most Americans agree global warming is taking place, many are still badly misinformed about the scientific consensus surrounding its causes. From the study, only 29% of Republicans and 10% of Tea Partiers think most scientists believe global warming is taking place. While Democrats (55%) and independents (46%) do better on the question, they're still way off.

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Environment

Why Far-Off Canadian Tar Sands Have Become A Make-Or-Break Issue For Obama With Enviros

Brian Beutler | August 26, 2011, 6:25AM

For six days and counting now, hundreds of protesters have gathered outside the White House to demand President Obama intervene and stop the construction of an oil pipeline that will span the breadth of the United States -- from Montana to the Gulf of Mexico. Over 300 of them have been arrested -- and not just wild-eyed idealistic college students, but high-profile advocates including environmental leader Bill McKibben. Despite all this, the administration says this is a question for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

What the heck is this all about?

At issue isn't just NIMBYism or standard concerns about oil spills, but the question of whether the United States should accelerate an extraction process that some environmental experts say will lose the fight against global warming forever.

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Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney Backs Away From Climate Change

Evan McMorris-Santoro | August 25, 2011, 8:58AM

GOP Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney

Staring down a new rival who believes climate change science is partially some kind of international grant money shakedown conspiracy, Mitt Romney is stepping back from a view of climate change he outlined earlier this summer.

"Do I think the world's getting hotter? Yeah, I don't know that but I think that it is," Romney told a crowd in New Hampshire Wednesday, according to Reuters. "I don't know if it's mostly caused by humans."

Romney then tilted over and grabbed some of Rick Perry's Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK)-endorsed ideas on the environment. That is, let's not spend a dime doing anything about it.

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Rick Perry

Senate's Preeminent Climate Skeptic Backs Rick Perry For President

Evan McMorris-Santoro | August 24, 2011, 2:59PM

Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) will endorse Texas Gov. Rick Perry's presidential campaign, he told the Tulsa Press Club Wednesday morning.

That marks a marriage of the U.S. Senate's chief climate skeptic with one of the nomination fight's most anti-climate science candidates.

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2012 Presidential Primaries

Santorum: I'll Take Up Huntsman's 'Offer' -- He's Crazy To Believe In Global Warming (VIDEO)

Eric Kleefeld | August 19, 2011, 4:33PM

On Thursday, Jon Huntsman tweeted a jab at fellow GOP primary candidate Rick Perry with the declaration: "To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy" -- a brave move for a Republican presidential candidate in the age of the Tea Party. In response, his fellow (and much more conservative) candidate Rick Santorum seems to be saying: Yup, you are crazy.

Santorum on Friday singled out Huntsman for accepting the scientific consensus on manmade activities being a significant contributor to global warming -- and did not talk at all about Huntsman's belief in evolution, despite his own long political history of questioning evolutionary science and advocating for the teaching of the "intelligent design" movement of creationism.

"Yeah well, I'll be the first one to take him up on his offer," Santorum told MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell. "You know, look, I've been very, very clear that the science just simply doesn't back up the issue of global warming.

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Rick Perry

Rick Perry: Climate Scientists Manipulate Data For Grant Money (VIDEO)

Evan McMorris-Santoro | August 17, 2011, 1:55PM

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) reaffirmed his climate change denier status before a crowd in Bedford, N.H., Wednesday and accused the researchers behind climate change science of playing games with the numbers to land more research funding.

"I do believe that the issue of global warming has been politicized," Perry said. "I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects."

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Rick Perry

Rick Perry: Climate Change Is A Hoax Drummed Up By Scientists Looking To Make Money

Evan McMorris-Santoro | August 17, 2011, 10:04AM

Rick Perry

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is a conservative Republican, and as such he does not believe that climate change is caused by human activity. But Perry went one step further than most in the mainstream climate change denier community on the presidential campaign trail in New Hampshire Wednesday, stating flatly that scientists drum up phony climate change data to make a buck.

"A substantial number of scientists [have] manipulated data to keep the money rolling in," New Hampshire Union Leader editorial page editor Drew Cline quoted Perry saying on the stump in a tweet. Before that, Cline quoted Perry saying, "I do believe the issue of global warming has been politicized."

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2012

Newt Says His Ad With Pelosi Was 'Miscontrued'

Benjy Sarlin | July 26, 2011, 9:57AM

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA)

For Newt Gingrich, the most devastating attack ad against his campaign is self-inflicted: a 2006 PSA for climate change that he cut with then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi. At the time Republicans from President Bush on down were moving to the center on the issue, but in recent years the GOP has purged virtually all pro-environment sentiment among its members. Now Gingrich is trying to catch up with the times by disavowing his old ad.

"I was trying to make a point that we shouldn't be afraid to have a debate with the left, even on the environment," Gingrich told WGIR radio on Tuesday. "Obviously it was misconstrued, and it's probably one of those things I wouldn't do again."

Gingrich probably would not be welcome back for another ad: he has repeatedly called for an end to the Environmental Protection Agency in recent months. As for whether he was misunderstood, you can watch the ad below:

Climate Change

Mitt Romney: Carbon Is Not A Pollutant

Benjy Sarlin | July 19, 2011, 9:52AM

GOP Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney

Environmentalists' brief flirtation with Mitt Romney appears to be reaching its conclusion. The Republican presidential candidate told voters in New Hampshire on Tuesday that he does not believe carbon is a pollutant.

"We have made a mistake is what I believe, in saying that the EPA should regulate carbon emissions," he said. "I don't think that was the intent of the original legislation, and I don't think carbon is a pollutant in the sense of harming our bodies."

The EPA is currently drawing up new rules for carbon emissions, which an overwhelming consensus of scientists believe contribute to climate change, after the Supreme Court determined in 2007 that carbon was indeed a pollutant and worthy of regulation.

Romney has acknowledged recently that climate change is both real and man made, a move that drew praise from Al Gore given the Republican field's anti-science bent. His quote about carbon doesn't exactly reverse this position: he was very specific in saying carbon is not a direct threat to people's bodies in the sense that breathing it won't kill you. But scientists have clearly identified it as a massive indirect threat in that it causes climate change, which threatens millions of people around the globe with effects ranging from drought to rising seas.

Rick Perry

Climate Skeptics Want Rick Perry To Run, Not Big Christie Fans

Evan McMorris-Santoro | July 1, 2011, 6:00AM

Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX)

The political news from the gathering of global warming skeptics at the Heartland Institute in DC this week is, for the most part, the same news you'll find at any predominantly conservative gathering these days. Attendees here want Texas Gov. Rick Perry to run for the Republican presidential nomination. Oh, and they're not thrilled with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

But there was one surprise -- climate skeptics are not as high on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as nearly every other Republican on the planet is.

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Climate Change

James Inhofe: Al Gore Is Right, Obama's Bailed On Talking About The Environment

Evan McMorris-Santoro | June 30, 2011, 10:38AM

Jim Inhofe

One of America's foremost climate change skeptics, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) says Al Gore (one of the nation's foremost climate change believers) is right in saying that President Obama has backed off when it comes to selling climate change to the electorate.

Inhofe says climate skeptics like him are partially responsible for the change. And he also warns that the shift is only skin-deep.

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Climate Change

With Climate Change Denial In Ascendancy, Skeptics Gather In Washington

Evan McMorris-Santoro | June 30, 2011, 9:17AM

This is a good time to be a Republican climate change skeptic -- at least one who doesn't live below sea level, in a flood plain or in the path of a deadly heatwave, tornado or hurricane.

It's strange, experts say, because more and more members of the party believe climate change is a real thing. But with the economy down, Americans have turned away from the issue -- leaving a Republican vacuum the tea party has filled with skepticism. And in DC this week, the skeptics are gathering to celebrate their ascendancy.

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Environment

Tim Pawlenty Says Climate Change Not Man-Made

Benjy Sarlin | June 28, 2011, 3:49PM

Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN)

Tim Pawlenty went full climate denier on Tuesday, embracing fringe claims that the vast international consensus on the issue is "bad science."

"So there is climate change, but the reality is the science of it indicates that most of it, if not all of it, is caused by natural causes," Pawlenty told FOX News. "And as to the potential human contribution to that, there's a great scientific dispute about that very issue."

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Climate Change

Al Gore: President Obama Has Failed To Lead On Climate Change

Benjy Sarlin | June 22, 2011, 10:43AM

Al Gore is calling out President Obama for his lack of leadership on the environment, saying the White House has failed to "make the case for bold action on climate change."

The ex-Veep's criticism is part of a lengthy Rolling Stone essay out Wednesday that recounts how the climate change movement faltered after coming so close to achieving its legislative goals in 2009.

"[Obama's] election was accompanied by intense hope that many things in need of change would change," Gore says. "Some things have, but others have not. Climate policy, unfortunately, is in the second category. Why?"

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Climate Change

Meet The New Pollution-Friendly GOP

Benjy Sarlin | June 21, 2011, 5:45AM

GOP Presidential Candidates Debate, Jun 13, 2011

In last week's debate, Republicans got their first look at a GOP field much more openly hostile to the environment than in recent elections, with several candidates openly calling for an end to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). But many of the top contenders have also flirted with eco-friendly policy in the recent past, even if they aren't too quick to proclaim it these days. Making matters more confusing, here's even some overlap between the two camps. So where do the big players stand right now?

On the far end, you have the "Abolish the EPA" crowd. These were the loudest and most noteworthy voices at the New Hampshire debate.

"What we need to do is pass the mother of all repeal bills, but it's the repeal bill that will get a job killing regulations," Michele Bachmann said at the event. "And I would begin with the EPA, because there is no other agency like the EPA. It should really be renamed the job-killing organization of America."

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2012

Let The Games Begin! A Guide To Tonight's GOP Debate

Brian Beutler | June 13, 2011, 6:45AM

Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty

Not since the first head-to-CPU contest between Gary Kasparov and Deep Blue has the world waited so breathlessly for the kind of battle of the minds we're likely to witness Monday evening.

For the first time this primary season, seven of the top contenders for the GOP presidential nomination will field tough questions, pitch Republican voters, and take on each others' foibles and apostasies during an 8 pm ET, CNN/WMUR/New Hampshire Union Leader-sponsored debate in Manchester, New Hampshire.

On hand will be Herman Cain, Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum, and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) -- all of whom participated in the first GOP debate last month. They'll be joined on stage by three big names in Republican politics: Newt Gingrich, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.

Like every primary debate since the advent of cable television, the forum will be marked by predictable talking points, unctuous spells of self-flattery, and reflexive attacks on the incumbent president.

But as the GOP field takes shape, it will also be one of the first opportunities for the contenders to stake out or clarify their positions on the issues defining this race. Here are the five key things to be on the look out for.

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Cap-and-Trade

Republican Senate Candidate Attacks Opponent For Supporting Cap-And-Trade Plan HE Helped Write

Brian Beutler | June 9, 2011, 2:22PM

Updated 6:45 p.m.

Republican Senate candidate Adam Hasner is attacking one of his primary opponents by linking him to a stalled cap-and-trade climate change law in Florida. That may sound like par for the course in GOP politics except for one small problem: Hasner co-sponsored that bill, and praised it publicly when it passed the state legislature.

In a press release attacking Republican candidate George Lemieux -- who already served in the Senate in an interim capacity after Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL) resigned -- Hasner tied his opponent to a cap-and-trade initiative spearheaded by former Governor Charlie Crist.

Like many Republicans, though, Hasner knows a thing or two about supporting cap and trade in the pre-Obama era.

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Rick Santorum

Rick Santorum: The Idea Of Climate Change Is A Liberal Conspiracy

Jillian Rayfield | June 9, 2011, 10:06AM

Rick Santorum at the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition's Spring Kickoff Event

Rick Santorum thinks the concept of man-made climate change is both "patently absurd" and part of a "scheme" by the left to get more government regulation.

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Pres '12

Romney: 'I Believe The World Is Getting Warmer' And Humans Partly Responsible

Eric Kleefeld | June 3, 2011, 4:55PM

Former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA)

Forget the individual mandate. Mitt Romney is now breaking with the Republican base on yet another issue. On Friday at a town hall in New Hampshire, Romney told the crowd he accepted the scientific conclusion that global warming is happening, and that man-made emissions are a factor.

Reuters reports:

"I believe the world is getting warmer, and I believe that humans have contributed to that," he told a crowd of about 200 at a town hall meeting in Manchester, New Hampshire.

"It's important for us to reduce our emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases that may be significant contributors."

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Jon Huntsman

Jon Huntsman Shocks Right By Refusing To Deny Climate Change Is Real

Evan McMorris-Santoro and Jillian Rayfield | May 17, 2011, 4:41PM

Jon Huntsman

This has been a hard week for the GOP's presidential prospects. First Newt Gingrich laid into the House Republican budget plan with the force of a DailyKos diarist. Now another big name (likely) presidential candidate is refusing to admit that man-made climate change might be a hoax.

"If 90 percent of the oncological community said something was causing cancer we'd listen to them," former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman told Time in a new interview. "I respect science and the professionals behind the science so I tend to think it's better left to the science community - though we can debate what that means for the energy and transportation sectors."

The reaction to that little nugget was about as you'd expect.

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Climate Change

Obama Calls Out 'Climate Change Deniers In Congress'

Brian Beutler | April 21, 2011, 8:23AM

President Barack Obama

At a fundraiser in San Francisco Wednesday evening, President Obama took direct, and unusually blunt, aim at a faction in the U.S. Congress that played a major role in upending his plan to pass sweeping clean energy and climate change legislation.

"There are climate change deniers in Congress and when the economy gets tough, sometimes environmental issues drop from people's radar screens," Obama told about 200 guests at the Pacific Heights residence of internet billionaire Marc Benioff, according to an official transcript. "But I don't think there's any doubt that unless we are able to move forward in a serious way on clean energy that we're putting our children and our grandchildren at risk. So that's not yet done."

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Barack Obama

White House Budget Meeting Ends With Both Sides Deeply Divided

Susan Crabtree | April 7, 2011, 2:31PM

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney

As Washington lurched precariously closer to a government shutdown, President Obama once again summoned Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to the White House Thursday afternoon in an attempt to strike a deal.

But at the end of the meeting, both sides appeared far from a compromise.

"We continue to have productive conversations -- they are polite and to the point," Boehner said, "but there is no agreement on the number of the policy."

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Barack Obama

Slight Progress But Still No Deal After White House Budget Meeting

Susan Crabtree | April 6, 2011, 11:33PM

President Barack Obama

President Obama and Congressional leaders cited limited progress but still had yet to reach a budget deal to avert a government shutdown after a emergency late-night meeting at the White House Wednesday.

Emerging from a meeting with Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Obama said the talks were "frank and constructive" but failed to produce the necessary compromises to strike a deal.

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Budget

Dems Open To Bending On Some Policy to Strike Budget Deal

Susan Crabtree | March 29, 2011, 3:48PM

Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) for the first time expressed a willingness to consider some GOP policy amendments that House Republicans are insisting lawmakers tack onto the spending bill to fund the government past April 8.

The concession is one hopeful sign in an otherwise stubborn standoff that both parties can strike a deal that avoids a government shutdown next week. But as with anything, the devil is in the details and which policy amendments the Democrats are considering.

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Pres '12

Pawlenty: My Past Support For Cap-And-Trade 'Was Stupid' (AUDIO)

Eric Kleefeld | March 29, 2011, 2:48PM

Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN)

Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN), who is exploring a run for president, is bluntly backing off from the progressive position he once took on cap-and-trade.

Pawlenty has stepped back from this position before, but now he's handling it as an apparent presidential candidate. MSNBC reports:

"Anybody who's going to run for this office who's been in an executive position or may run has got some clunkers in their record," he said on the Laura Ingraham Show. "As to climate change - or more specifically cap-and-trade - I've just come out and admitted and said, 'Look, it was a mistake. It was stupid. I'm not going to try to defend it.'"

The former Minnesota governor signed a bill in 2007 that authorized a task force "to recommend how the state could adopt" a cap-and-trade system. The same year, he also joined onto an accord with five other governors urging the creation of "a market-based and multi-sector cap-and-trade mechanism."

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Environment

Every Single GOPer On House Energy Cmte Won't Say Climate Change Is Real

Evan McMorris-Santoro | March 15, 2011, 6:33PM

Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Bob Latta (R-OH) and Fred Upton (R-MI)

Thirty-one Republicans on the House Energy And Commerce Committee -- the entire Republican contingent on the panel -- declined on Tuesday to vote in support of the very idea that climate change exists.

Democrats on the panel had suggested three amendments that said climate change is a real thing, is caused by humans and has potentially dire consequences for the future. The amendments came on a Republican bill to block the EPA from offering regulations to mitigate the results of global climate shifts. The global scientific community is in near unanimous agreement that climate change is real, and that humans contribute to it.

None of the 31 Republicans on the committee would vote yes on any of the amendments (Rep. Marsha Blackburn [R-TN] declined to vote on one.) The committee's 21 Democrats voted yes on all three.

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Mark Kirk

Kirk Cites Al Gore's Personal Life As Impetus For Climate Flip-Flop

Brian Beutler | February 2, 2011, 12:04PM

Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL)

Back when he was a member of the House, Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) was one of a few Republicans who voted for a far-reaching climate change bill. That legislation quickly fueled Tea Party rage, and conservatives went on the attack against the plan's backers. So Kirk did an about face on the issue, and now blames... Al Gore's personal life for the whole sorry episode.

"The consensus behind the climate change bill collapsed and then further deteriorated with the personal and political collapse of Vice President [Al] Gore," Kirk told Greenwire.

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Darrell Issa

Major Trade Association Asks Issa To Curb Toxin, Safety, Financial Reform Regs

Brian Beutler | January 12, 2011, 10:18AM

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA)

Late last year, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the incoming chairman of the House Oversight Committee sent a letter to the country's major trade associations and private corporations asking them which regulations they want to see weakened or eliminated.

In response, the GOP-friendly National Association of Manufacturers has asked him to probe forthcoming regulations aimed at enhancing worker health, improving toxin standards, mitigating climate pollution and preventing another crisis on Wall Street.

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Death Panels

GOP Could Force Vote On 'Death Panels'

Brian Beutler | December 28, 2010, 12:55PM

President Barack Obama

Republicans could turn the cooked-up controversy over end-of-life counseling into a "Death Panel" vote next year.

If they fully embrace their new strategy, outlined here, Republicans could cherry pick politically-charged executive branch regulations and put vulnerable Democrats, particularly in the Senate, in a bind: vote for regulations that are unpopular with their constituents; or rebuke President Obama as he attempts to govern from the White House.

One of those regulations -- scheduled to take effect January 1 -- would achieve the Obama administration's goal of encouraging end-of-life planning. It works by paying Medicare doctors for counseling patients with terminal illness on their medical options -- including advance directives compelling doctors and families to forgo certain medical interventions like feeding tubes, IV fluids or respirators. Obama and congressional Democrats tried to include these incentives in their health care law, but were forced to nix it after Sarah Palin and other Republicans started referring to the provisions as "death panels" that could "pull the plug on grandma."

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Climate Change

House GOP Abolishes Committee On Climate Change

Eric Kleefeld | December 2, 2010, 2:05PM

John Boehner

The incoming House Republican majority has taken a first step in streamlining the way Congress operates -- by dissolving the committee that Democrats created specifically to hold hearings on global warming.

The AFP reports:

Democrats immediately assailed what they branded the "very disappointing" decision to dismantle the Select Committee on Global Warming, which did not have the power to approve legislation.

"We have pledged to save taxpayers' money by reducing waste and duplication in Congress," said a spokesman for Republican House speaker-designate John Boehner, Michael Steel.

Look on the bright side: House Republicans have clearly acknowledged that the Committee on Global Warming exists, was created by humans, and could be reversed.

House Energy & Commerce Committee

Meet John Shimkus: Anti-Climate Science GOPer Who May Head House Energy Panel

Eric Kleefeld | November 29, 2010, 8:43AM

Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL)

As we survey the Republicans set to take charge of House committee chairmanships, we can see how some of them have said the darnedest things. For example, just look at the possible next chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL).

The committee's current ranking GOPer, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), endangered his bid for the chairmanship this past June, when he publicly apologized to BP for the way they were cajoled into setting up a $20 billion escrow fund to compensate victims of that whole underwater oil geyser in the Gulf of Mexico.

But let's take a look at Shimkus, who is a key alternative candidate to Barton for that chairmanship, and his pronouncements on climate policy and other issues -- and how environmental catastrophes cannot possibly happen, because God will not allow it.

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CO-SEN

Ken Buck: Inhofe Is Right, Global Warming Is A Huge Hoax

Eric Lach | October 21, 2010, 9:41AM

Ken Buck

Colorado Republican Senate nominee Ken Buck has made his first public comments since Sunday, when he drew headlines for comparing being gay to alcoholism on Meet The Press. In a meeting with supporters Wednesday, Buck tried to put that comment behind him, and urged his backers to stay focused on the economy. Then he said global warming is a big ol' hoax.

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Nancy Pelosi

Top Five Examples Of Dems Running Scared From Nancy Pelosi (VIDEO)

Brian Beutler | October 1, 2010, 12:35PM

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

It's too early to predict the outcome of the 2010 elections, but one thing we know for sure: If Democrats lose their majority in the House, Nancy Pelosi will not be Speaker anymore. That's certainly one of the reasons that she doesn't bat an eye (publicly, at least) when vulnerable and conservative Democrats run from her on the campaign trail.

"Sometimes Washington gets used to a rubber-stamp Congress which was the very homogeneous Congress of the Republicans," Pelosi said on PBS last night. "We are very diverse in opinion, gender, generation, geography, philosophy and the rest -- the House Democratic Caucus -- and some members did not vote for some the bills and that's their record and that's what they go out and say. I just want them to win."

But these candidates are not just running against their records. They're singling out Pelosi as the agent in Washington with whom they disagree with the most. Below, a list of the five most blatant examples of Democrats running scared from Pelosi.

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WI-SEN

GOPer Ron Johnson: Greenland Used To Be Green (Not Exactly)

Eric Kleefeld | August 23, 2010, 2:47PM

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI)

Ron Johnson, a businessman and the likely Republican nominee against Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), is elaborating on his previous statements that sunspots are the cause of global warming. And along the way, he's invoking some interesting (and questionable) examples from archaeology.

In an interview with the local ABC station in Madison, Johnson further explained that he believes global warming is caused more by "solar activity" -- he said it could be sunspots or solar flares -- than anything man is doing. (In fact, sunspot activity and overall solar radiance have gone down slightly in the last ten years, while global temperatures have gone up.) And in any case, he said that government investments in clean energy would not work and would only harm the economy.

Johnson also invoked an interesting -- though not altogether accurate -- argument supposedly proving that climate change is no biggie. "There's a reason Greenland was called Greenland," he said. "It was actually green at one point in time. And it's been, since, it's a whole lot whiter now."

It's an intriguing example -- and not quite true.

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Climate Change

Senate Democrats Drop BP-Climate Bill Until After Recess

Christina Bellantoni | August 3, 2010, 4:33PM

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) with Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) in the background.

Senate Democrats announced this afternoon they will go home for a month-long recess without taking action on a scaled-back energy measure that was their best chance for any legislation addressing the issue before the midterm elections. A voted had been scheduled on the energy bill, which would create jobs and establish new thresholds for BP's financial responsibility along the Gulf Coast.

With senators citing the hottest July on record, they bashed Republicans for not joining them on a bill they said would hold BP accountable for the oil spill and which would create incentives for green jobs.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid declared, "We are not giving up on energy," but pointedly said something would be accomplished by the "end of the year," not before the election. Republicans hopeful they could win back control of Congress this fall are cautioning Democrats against any major legislation during a lame-duck session.

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