Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island made a statement that is giving great offense to Republicans. (Hat tip to Charles P. Pierce for flagging this.)
"So, you may have a question for me," Whitehouse said. "Why do you care? Why do you, Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, care if we Republicans run off the climate cliff like a bunch of proverbial lemmings and disgrace ourselves? I'll tell you why. We're stuck in this together. We are stuck in this together. When cyclones tear up Oklahoma and hurricanes swamp Alabama and wildfires scorch Texas, you come to us, the rest of the country, for billions of dollars to recover. And the damage that your polluters and deniers are doing doesn't just hit Oklahoma and Alabama and Texas. It hits Rhode Island with floods and storms. It hits Oregon with acidified seas, it hits Montana with dying forests. So, like it or not, we're in this together."
emphasis added
The Daily Caller has a bit more from Whitehouse:
“You drag America with you to your fate,” he continued. “So, I want this future: I want a Republican Party that has returned to its senses and is strong and a worthy adversary in a strong America that has done right by its people and the world. That’s what I want.
I don’t want this future. I don’t want a Republican Party disgraced, that let its extremists run off the cliff, and an America suffering from grave economic and environmental and diplomatic damage because we failed, because we didn’t wake up and do our duty to our people, and because we didn’t lead the world. I do not want that future. But that’s where we’re headed. So I will keep reaching out and calling out, ever hopeful that you will wake up before it is too late.”
Needless to say, there are a lot of hurt fee fees on the right. The comments at The Daily Caller span the gamut. Over at
Red State, (Warning - link may cause brain damage.) there's the expected High Dudgeon:
It shows us why Earth Day is such a pathetic joke. It shows us that the Left suddenly “cares” about the environment when it presents them with a crisis that enables them to make “progress.” The fact that this “progress” involves urinating on the graves of Elementary School kids killed by a horrible tornado doesn’t even cause the average Democrat voter to pause and feel the slightest lilt of embarrassment or shame.
You know what guys? If you really are disgusted by Democrats 'using dead children to score political points',
how about you stop doing things that get them killed in the first place?
Calling these people moral idiots is an understatement.
Updates are below the Orange Omnilepticon
5:00 PM PT: Update: It's been suggested Whitehouse's remarks should get spread far and wide. Well, that's what the Facebook and Tweet links are for up below the title of this post. Let's do it.
Wed May 22, 2013 at 7:05 AM PT: Update: Whitehouse made those remarks while the tornado was hitting Oklahoma. He has apologized for the timing - it was his regular weekly address on climate change. More here: http://news.providencejournal.com/...
Wed May 22, 2013 at 7:22 AM PT: A further thought on this. The right wing echo machine has been calling out Whitehouse for politicizing the tragedy - BUT he didn't know it was happening at the time he was giving the speech! The only thing Whitehouse is guilty of is being right and telling truth to fools. And that truly is the unforgivable sin these days.
Wed May 22, 2013 at 10:13 AM PT: Thanks to NoMoJoe for a link to the full speech by Whitehouse - it's worth reading the whole thing: http://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/...
