New post:

Why I hate Republicans part 3379…

frumforum.com

This post is from Frum forum. I like David Frum as much as I like any Republican. The article is talking about AGW and AGW policy.

The planned push for a bipartisan climate and energy bill by Senators Graham, Lieberman and Kerry has stalled after Sen. Reid decided immigration pandering was more important. Public pressure for climate legislation is muted, as polls show concern about global warming is waning while skepticism that it’s human-caused is waxing.

The conservative base may be even less interested in a climate-bill compromise than it was in a health reform compromise. On healthcare, many conservatives had come to agree there was a serious problem, even if the proposed solution was misguided. On climate change, the main conservative rallying point these days is along the lines of “it’s a hoax,” rather than that proposed mitigation measures are poorly constructed.

Given all that, it will be tempting for Republican politicians to just say no to any bill aimed at addressing climate change. This would be a mistake, on both policy and political grounds. For one thing, views that global warming is not happening or not human-caused remain at odds with mainstream scientific opinion. Recent reports that clear “Climategate” scientists of wrongdoing might be part of a “conspiracy so vast” or some such, but a political party embracing such a claim risks looking foolish and paranoid.

For another thing, the weakened momentum for climate legislation gives an opportunity for Republicans to place a conservative imprint on any bill that might go forward. That would mean the legislation should include such elements as these:

It goes on to emphasize the reality that climate legislation will still likely come to pass and it even makes some reasonable policy additions that should be added to put a “conservative stamp” on such legislation.

What bothers me more than anything, is that nowhere in this analysis is a discussion that goes, “hey, this is real and bad things will happen if we do not act.” It is about polls and politics. It is not about scientific reasns to be concerned and act appropriately regardless of whether or not fools who take part in polls see it favorably. This is not a game, yet the best and most reasonable of the GOP see this as a cold political calculation.