Rep. Joe Barton On Climategate: Are Scientists “Brainwashing” America?

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by Robert Quigley | 8:52 am, December 14th, 2009

» 8 comments

Yesterday, Representative Joe Barton, known to his critics as “Smokey Joe” for his staunchly free-market, anti-regulation stance on corporate pollution, went on C-SPAN to discuss … wait for it … Climategate.

The Climategate affair, and the public skepticism about man-made global warming that it has helped produce, have to be a small triumph for a man who has been a staunch skeptic since before it was fashionable.

From the interview with The Hill’s Ben Gemen and C-SPAN’s Steve Scully:

Gemen: I guess I’m still just a little bit puzzled by how so many scientists across such a spectrum in your view could have all gotten it so catastrophically wrong?

Barton: Well if they all believe in the theory and they’re funded and they’re part of a group that it’s in their academic, professional career to prove that theory right, they can kind of brainwash themselves. Now I’m not saying they’ve done that, but I’m saying that’s a fair question. And the more that comes out the more relevant that question becomes.

Scully: Are they brainwashing Americans?

Barton: I think some of them have tried to.

Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs, ever acerbic: ”It’s like a six-course meal of stupid.”

To his credit, Barton isn’t one of the bandwagon-jumpers who have suddenly become vocal climate change skeptics in the wake of Climategate: he’s been at the forefront for some time now.

The environment-minded League of Conservation Voters has never given him a rating of higher than 5% since 1999. Last year, the LCV gave him a rating of 0% for voting, among other things, to eliminate funding for all of the environmental staff in the White House, to prevent the National Marine Fisheries Service from taking measures to protect wild salmon and other species, and against a bill to “recodify the authority of the Secretary of Homeland Security to enhance security and protect against acts of terrorism against chemical facilities.”

(h/t Crooks and Liars)

C-Span, Charles Johnson, Climate Change, Climategate, Joe Barton, Joe Barton C-SPAN, Joe Barton Climate Change, Joe Barton Interview, Little Green Footballs

m

Does Rep. Joe Barton even know how the hell science works? Excuse my language.
germ

“Climategate” is the ENRON of the science world.
ImNotBlue

It’s funny how all of a sudden, if you take the “common sense” approach that “scientists fudging numbers and data is a bad thing,” you must not know anything about science. Good thing all those lefties are (all of a sudden) scientific experts, and can “educate” the rest of us.
Snipzor

Says the person who has yet to post a single citation with real data. Actually, says a representative sample of a group whom has yet to post a single citation or study with real data. Hang on to your tin foil hat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nnVQ2fROOg (For the hell of it)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P70SlEqX7oY (Watch both parts)
LNSmithee

I wonder how many of these people who want to ignore emails about fudging the evidence of “climate change” would be AOK with prosecutors ignoring CSIs who fudge the evidence against a murder suspect facing life imprisonment or execution.

Go ahead, tell me how it’s not the same. I’m listening.
tjl

The dumb get dumber!

LNSmithee, we need to get CSI here to figure out what killed the brain cells that I imagine once occupied that lovely head of yours. After all, you and ImNot wouldn’t have been able to make those fabulous icons if you guys weren’t smart at one point.

Hey ImNotBlue, what part of 95% of scientists believe that global warming is man-made don’t you understand? They could have made it easier on you by having your lord and savior Glenn Beck put that in a gold commercial. The simple need the simple. You’re drooling.

It still amazes me how many of you so-called conservatives don’t “get” science. Thanks for playing, we’ll leave books, science, math, history, and making real friends to the rest of us. Beside, you have A LOT of tv to watch. Fox News doesn’t watch itself, you know? Toodles!
m

If you don’t get science, maybe you should just stop trying since you’ve obviously realized science isn’t for you.

>“Climategate” is the ENRON of the science world.

“Climategate” won’t change anything. Trust me, in a year nobody will remember anything about it anymore.
ImNotBlue

tjl says:
December 15, 2009 at 2:15 am

Ugh. Is that the best you’ve got? A bunch of personal insults, and a statistic that at best is misleading and false? It misses the issue, doesn’t address the science… doesn’t address the reality. Oh well, I guess when all you’ve got is name calling, it’s the best we can hope for.

m says:
December 15, 2009 at 3:47 am

“Climategate” won’t change anything. Trust me, in a year nobody will remember anything about it anymore.

Maybe yes, maybe no. I know there are a lot of people who would prefer to keep it quiet… we’ve already seen that. But just like the ACORN scandal… maybe not.