Courtesy The Plank, Bradford Plumer
"the rousing tale of how John Boehner decided which House Republicans would get to serve on the new select committee on climate change"
via David Peters at Gristmill:
Global warming panel makeup questioned
By Nicole Gaudiano
Gannett News Service
WASHINGTON -- House Republican Leader John Boehner would have appointed Rep. Wayne Gilchrest to the bipartisan Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming -- but only if the Maryland Republican would say humans are not causing climate change, Gilchrest said.
"I said, 'John, I can't do that,' " Gilchrest, R-1st-Md., said in an interview. "He said, 'Come on. Do me a favor. I want to help you here.' "
Gilchrest didn't make the committee. Neither did other Republican moderates or science-minded members, whose guidance centrist GOP members usually seek on the issue. Republican moderates, called the Tuesday Group, invited Boehner to this week's meeting to push for different representation.
The select committee's purpose is to investigate and recommend ways to reduce dependence on foreign energy sources and reduce "emissions and other activities that contribute to climate change," according to legislation that passed March 8 creating the committee. Some Republicans worry that restricting greenhouse gas emissions would have a negative effect on businesses.
Boehner's spokesman Brian Kennedy said he doesn't comment on the private conversations Boehner has with members of his conference, but "the only criteria set for potential members of the panel was that they must undertake a thorough review of the facts, the empirical data and the science to determine how Congress can craft the best possible legislation going forward."
Gilchrest, who co-chairs the House Climate Change Caucus, has long been an environmental-protection advocate and has co-sponsored the Climate Stewardship Act designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 to 70 percent below 1990 levels.
He expressed his interest in the committee several times to Boehner and Minority Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri, telling them the best thing they could do for Republican credibility was to appoint members familiar with the scientific data.
Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, a research scientist from Maryland, and Michigan's Rep. Vern Ehlers, the first research physicist to serve in Congress, also made cases for a seat, but weren't appointed, he said.
"Roy Blunt said he didn't think there was enough evidence to suggest that humans are causing global warming," Gilchrest said. "Right there, holy cow, there's like 9,000 scientists to three on that one."
__________________________
Note to the Minister of Public Safety in Canada's now "old new" government:
Stockwell
Dear Minister Day,
Stockwell, Stockwell, Stockwell you should have been born an American you'd have fit right in nicely with some of the GOPers.
Sincerely,
A well-wisher
__________________________
Just to remind everyone of some of Mr. Public Safety's gems when he wasn't daydreaming about cavemen hunting dinosaurs.
During the 2000 [Canadian federal]election campaign Day made the following comments and voiced the following beliefs:
He showed up at a press conference on a Jet Ski wearing a wetsuit and said that politicians should spend less time in Ottawa and more time on vacation.
At a technology firm in Ontario, he complained about "brain drain" to the United States, but meanwhile the owner of the firm was actually FROM the United States.
In Niagara Falls, he complained that Canadian jobs were flowing south just like the Niagara River (the Niagara River flows north, not south).
At Conestoga College in Ontario he was doused with chocolate milk by a student, after which he complained that "I should have been wearing the wet suit."
During the campaign, some of his old religious/anti-abortion beliefs came out including "Women who become pregnant through rape or incest should not qualify for government funded abortions unless their pregnancy is life threatening."
He also proposed "direct democracy", which stated that any petition with only 3% of voters signatures should be used to trigger a referendum on the subject. After which there was petition circulated that wanted Stockwell Day to change his name to "Doris Day". The petition got over 1 million voters to sign it (which is way over 3%).
Day espoused his belief that evolution doesn't exist and that people do really come from Adam and Eve.
Day believed that an "Asian Invasion" was taking place at Canadian universities and that we shouldn't allow asians to study in Canada.
He made a variety of other quotes displaying his anti-immigration beliefs, anti-native rights, anti-women's rights and anti-Quebec.
Technorati Tags: Charter members of the Stockwell Day fraternity, delusionists, Really stupid, Silly
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