This week, diplomats from around the world are gathering in Copenhagen for the global climate change summit—an event that has been marked by controversy in the wake of the “climate-gate” scandal that has recently and rightly gained significant international media attention.
This scandal has provoked many questions that I believe deserve answers. Among other things, it would seem that information relating to climate change research may have been held back from the public— and key decision-makers, too. This could of course impact the appropriateness and effectiveness of policy that the US, and indeed world leaders, might pursue. Before moving forward, given the potentially significant economic consequences associated with some of the steps under consideration, I personally think it is important to get a handle on all the facts, whether they be good, bad or ugly.

Since the details of a looming public option compromise have begun to leak out, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) has reiterated his opposition to a triggered public option–which is reportedly part of a new health care agreement. I asked him today whether he still intends to filibuster, even if the Congressional Budget Office says it's unlikely to be filled. He drew a line in the sand.

"I've told them that I can't support a trigger–no, actually, to be more explicit: If they say that it's unlikely to be [pulled] then it's unnecessary," Lieberman said. "It's an irritant. And I keep saying to my colleagues: the underlying bill, that I would say 60 of us in the caucus support, that is, the parts that we support in the underlying bill, are so full of progress–let's get that done, and stop trying to squeeze in things that some of us, respectfully, just won't accept."

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) said Thursday that she does not support the Medicare buy-in because it would “aggravate an already-serious problem” with the program – the low reimbursement rates for hospitals and doctors.

“I have serious concerns,” Snowe told reporters. “I just think that is the wrong direction to take.”

Snowe said she could not see a way for Senate Democratic leaders to even tweak the proposal to win her vote.

“I can’t see it,” said Snowe, who met Wednesday with President Barack Obama. “I am talking to a lot of my providers this afternoon and I know they are mighty unhappy.”

“Republicans have to stick together on a strategy of highlighting Medicare cuts, tax increases and insurance premium increases,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a member of the leadership. “Ultimately the goal is to stop the bill. Processing amendments puts Democrats on record and helps educate people about the bill.”

Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) rebutted Limbaugh’s criticism.

“The strategy is working,” Johanns said of McConnell’s plan to wage the healthcare fight. “The strategy is through the amendment process to put out the issues on this bill. Every poll shows that American people, once they understand this bill, are passionately opposed to it. You only get there with amendments that show what they [Democrats] are doing to Medicare.”

Conservative Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) on Wednesday called out the leadership of the Republican Party for straying too far from conservative principles.

DeMint, in an interview with the Christian Broadcast Network, also said that he is trying to recruit a new crop of GOP lawmakers to challenge the party establishment.
"The problem in the Republican Party is that the leadership has gone to the left," he said. "I need some new Republicans."

DeMint's comments come as party leaders such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) chairman John Cornyn (R-Texas), and RNC chairman Michael Steele have come under fire from several conservative bloggers and conservative grassroots activists.

But in addition to shepherding the health care bill through the Senate, Reid is also locked in a tough reelection campaign.

And in that regard his desire for a weekend off is not so benevolent to other Senators and staffers.

It turns out Reid has a 1,000 plus per plate fundraiser scheduled for Saturday in New Orleans, according to one local paper, which also reports that Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-LA, a key swing moderate in the health care debate, will also be in attendance.

But Reid will not escape the health debate even in the Big Easy; the paper reports that Tea Party activists who oppose helath reform are planning to picket the fundraiser.

A quick refresher for those who got drunk and slept through the day: Chip Hanlon, CEO of the right-wing blog Red County, put up a post Wednesday informing his readers that he has banned from the site the blogger formerly known as Sgt. York (who in real life is Placer County GOP activist Aaron Park). Hanlon, it seems, belatedly discovered that the Sarge was receiving payments from a consultant called Steve Frank who was himself receiving payments from Team Poizner; Sarge, it seems, neglected to mention this sort of significant, um, fiduciary relationship to Hanlon.

Complications ensued.

For more on the facts of the case, see posts by Joe Garofoli and Martin Wisckol.

Someone should tell Steve Poizner that Red County would have covered his Gubernatorial campaign for free.

You see, I’ve recently learned something which, in retrospect, might not come as a complete shock to all our readers given the nature of his content: I have it in writing that the Poizner camp has been secretly paying one of our writers, “Sgt. York,” for favorable coverage all year long.

Now, to be fair, the Poizner camp wasn’t paying him directly. Instead, they were paying a “consultant,” and that person was paying our now-former writer. But it is a fact that the person was paying York explicitly for pro-Poizner, anti-Whitman commentaries, articles specifically to be written on RedCounty.com.
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Shame on Steve Poizner, Steve Frank and Aaron Park.

The Orange County-based Red County blog is accustomed to writing about other people’s controversies, but today they wrote about one of their own: Their most outspoken supporter of gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner was cut loose after it was learned he was getting paid by the Poizner campaign.

Poizner spokesman Jarrod Agen fired back, saying Red County had become a cheerleader for Poizner opponent Meg Whitman. He said the Poizner campaign knew that the blogger – Placer County Republican Aaron Park, nom de blog of Sgt. York – was working for one of their consultants and blogging for Red County.

“There are lots of consultants who blog on websites and if a blog has rules, it’s up to the blogger to know the rules,” Agen said. “It’s an issue that doesn’t involve our campaign.
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Shame on you Aaron. You know better than this.

The blogger known as Sgt. York rarely missed an opportunity to Meg Whitman bash on the popular conservative blog Red County. On her "condescending attitude," her voting record, Van Jones, etc. No problem. That's fair game in politics.

Wasn't even a problem that he was paid to do so by Steve Frank, a consultant to Steve Poizner's campaign. (Poiz has tossed Frank's Eagle Group $37,722 from February through June.) Paid bloggers (and they ain't getting much so don't get any wild ideas) have become part of the media landscape in politics, just as they have in corporate America.
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Shame on Steve Poizner and Steve Frank

That is the actual worrying question about CRU, and GISS, and the other scientists working on paleoclimate reconstruction: that they may all be calibrating their findings to each other. That when you get a number that looks like CRU, you don't look so hard to figure out whether it's incorrect as you do when you get a number that doesn't look like CRU–and maybe you adjust the numbers you have to look more like the other "known" datasets. There is always a way to find what you're expecting to find if you look hard enough.

There are other issues: selection bias in the grant process, papers with large results being much more likely to be published than papers with equivocal results, professors preferring students who agree with them, and so forth. I doubt that could amount to faking the entire thing. But it could amplify the magnitude.

Hours before Barack Obama is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, a new national poll indicates that fewer Americans than ever think the president deserves the award. But according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey, a majority of the public believes the president will eventually accomplish enough to merit the honor.

Full results (pdf)

Nineteen percent of people questioned in the poll released Wednesday afternoon say Obama currently deserves the prize, with another 35 percent saying that it's likely he will eventually accomplish enough in office to deserve the award. Still, greater than four in 10 believe the president will never deserve the prize.

The 19 percent who believe Obama deserves the award is down 13 points from a CNN poll conducted in October, soon after the award was announced.