JONATHAN COHN FEBRUARY 2, 2011
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Here's how Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) explains his big about-face on climate change over the past year:
"The consensus behind the climate change bill collapsed and then further deteriorated with the personal and political collapse of Vice President [Al] Gore," Kirk said in a brief interview last week.
It was Gore's fault! Once upon a time, Kirk was one of the handful of Republicans who believed in climate change. He defended his 2009 vote for the House cap-and-trade bill by stating, "There is now a growing scientific consensus that the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide affects average temperatures." But then he wanted to run for Illinois's Senate seat, needed to fend off a primary challenge from the right, and had to reverse himself.
Most conservatives who have made this shuffle in recent months have at least tried to pretend that those Climategate e-mails were what changed their mind. Blaming Al Gore's marital troubles is a new one.
2 comments
What does it say about our political system when a man who believes one thing will change his beliefs if he runs against someone who believes something else and then has to give a stupid reason for having done so?
- Nusholtz
February 2, 2011 at 2:55pm
I've stopped using the internet because of Al and Tipper's divorce. (Well, I'm using it a little, for the sake of their children.)
- Geoff G
February 2, 2011 at 5:42pm