Inhofe on Gore, Earmarks
Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Tulsa, gave a speech on the Senate floor this afternoon on his signature issues, both old and new: global warming and earmarks.
Inhofe used former Vice President Al Gore, who won the Nobel prize and an Academy Award for his work on global warming, as a focal point for his position that the arguments behind climate change are coming unraveled.
Gore, who recently wrote a lengthy piece in the New York Times dismissing the claims of skeptics like Inhofe, is “drowning in a sea of his own global warming illusions,” Inhofe said.
As a prop for his remarks, Inhofe used a blow-up of the cover of the Weekly Standard magazine that depicted a naked Gore surrounded on ice surrounded by polar bears.
Inhofe went on to say that Gore and others who are heavily invested in the global warming crisis are also heavily invested in companies that could profit from “green” policies.
Inhofe then pivoted to his new issue on which he is staking a claim to be chief contrarian _ earmarks.
As Democrats and Republicans in the House took steps last week to limit the practice of specifying special projects _ from roads to academic research _ in their districts, Inhofe took the opposite stand, arguing that cutting off members’ pork won’t save any money and will just give more spending power to the executive branch (i.e. unelected bureaucrats).
In his speech today, Inhofe said it was “mind boggling” that House Republicans would agree not to request any earmarks.
“I respect my friends in the House, but they made a mistake,” he said.
Meanwhile, Inhofe has posted his requests for defense-related earmarks for the next fiscal year. He can still work with Rep. Dan Boren, D-Muskogee, to get money for some, but not for the ones that go to private, for-profit companies like defense contractors.
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Al Gore, Weather Whhore.