Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Oklahoma's Newest Ice Age Fossil: Sen. Jim Inhofe

He's the former mayor of our fine city, but we have nothing good to say about Sen. Jim Inhofe's embarrassing performance Wednesday in Washington.

Inhofe, well known (and widely ridiculed) for calling global warming "a hoax," went out of his way to interrupt and dispute Al Gore's every word Wednesday when former vice president returned to Capitol Hill to testify about climate change and what might be done about it.

Inhofe was so disputatious and high-handed that Sen. Barbara Boxer found it necessary to remind him that he was no longer the chair of the senate committee. "Elections have consequences," Boxer said, emphasizing that Inhofe was on the losing side in the 2006 elections. (See the clip for yourself at today's Crooks and Liars.)

We're quite sure Inhofe thinks he's representing his good friends in the oil and gas industry when he resorts to such stunts. But he's skating on thin ice (pun intended).

Had the good senator been paying attention to both science and industry, he might have noted that they too are increasingly agreeing with Gore, not with him. As Newsweek's Howard Fineman noted after reviewing both Gore and Inhofe, Gore is winning both on the science and the politics of global warming.

Meanwhile, Tulsans may have to tell their out-of-state friends that they really live in Kansas or Arkansas. And, no, they never heard of this grandstanding Inhofe character.

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