Kevin Grandia observed the other day that Climate Depot -- which is published by Marc Morano of Swift Boat conspiracy fame -- appeared to be ground zero for the 'Climategate' conspiracy. But until today, there had not been any indication that conservative bloggers were actually involved in the criminal activity of hacking the emails.
Originally posted at EnviroKnow.
On the Washington Times' America's Morning program today, Senator James Inhofe accused conservative bloggers of illegally hacking into University of East Anglia computers:
Now that was four years ago; so we knew they were cooking the science back then, and you’ve been talking about the, you know, what’s happened recently with the bloggers coming up with what they did, what they...
Jed Babbin, editor of HumanEvents.com, repeated the charge seconds later:
Jed Babbin: Let me interrupt you there Senator, because I think that’s a really important point. Ladies and gentlemen, if you haven’t followed that story, what Senator Inhofe’s talking about, in Britain, a blogger got into some of the official government records about climate change and how the measurements were being taken to show...
To be as clear as possible, I am not accusing conservative bloggers of criminal activity. A Republican Senator and far-right website owner are.
Later in the interview, Senator Inhofe announced that he'll be calling for an investigation of the United Nations for 'the way that they cooked the science':
Senator Inhofe: Well, on this thing, it is pretty serious. And since, you know, Barabara Boxer is the Chairman and I’m the Ranking Member on Environment and Public Works, if nothing happens in the next seven days when we go back into session a week from today that would change this situation, I will call for an investigation. ‘Cause this thing is serious, you think about the literally millions of dollars that have been thrown away on some of this stuff that they came out with.
Melanie Morgan: So what will you be calling for an investigation of?
Senator Inhofe: On the IPCC and on the United Nations on the way that they cooked the science to make this thing look as if the science was settled, when all the time of course we knew it was not.
Apparently not content with stopping there, Inhofe goes on to praise the criminals for their good timing and for being on the ball:
The interesting part of this is it’s happening right before Copenhagen. And, so, the timing couldn’t be better. Whoever is on the ball in Great Britain, their time was good.
Imagine the outrage that would ensue if the tables were turned. If someone had orchestrated a politically motivated attempt to hack into ExxonMobile's private emails -- and a liberal United States Senator publicly praised them for it -- the fallout would be monumental. 'Mainstream media' outlets would talk about how shameful and unprofessional it was. Conservative bloggers and pundits would initiate a drumbeat of calls for some sort of public condemnation. Conservative Democrats would probably join the call after a few days, and the Senator would be censured by the end of the week.
But this is Senator Inhofe, who everybody knows is batshit insane, so this will probably go unnoticed.