Truth Emerging About White House Climate Science Manipulations

Had we been in Washington yesterday, we could have watched the Bush administration's inexorable unraveling take on a decidedly green, spring-like tone:

Public testimony was finally taken on the administration's censorial tinkering of climate change reports by a former oil industry lobbyist, Philip Cooney.

"Before joining the White House," reports the New York Times," Mr. Cooney was the “climate team leader” for the American Petroleum Institute, the main industry lobby in Washington.

That would be a little like putting Joseph Hazelwood, the drunken ship captain who ran the Exxon Valdez aground in Alaska, in charge of the National Transportation Safety Board.

But hey: why bother to expect a straight story on climate science when other administration officials were off spinning tall tales about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, uranium sales to Iraq by Niger, sufficient troop levels in Iraq, adequate armoring of combat vehicles there, the true cost of Medicare reforms, eavesdropping and snooping programs here and abroad, etc. etc?

And don't weep too many tears for the Mr. Cooney, who was forced out of his job in 2005 by The New York Times and other media disclosing his heavy-handed, pro-industry editing.

Exxon Mobil - - the successor firm to plain old Exxon that once entrusted a supertanker to Joseph Hazelwood - - hired Cooney when his handiwork was done at the White House.

Another person sent over to NASA in 2996 by the Bushies to carry out more anti-climate change media spinning - - a 22-year-old campaign aide - - also had to resign after it was disclosed that he had not completed the college degree claimed on his resume.

And these sorts of folks are bashing Al Gore & Co. over climate change accuracy?