Amusingly clueless Washington Post columnist: "there are some scientists who are global-warming skeptics, but these few — about 2 percent of climate researchers — could hold their annual meeting in a phone booth"

The GOP is fed up with its choices - Eugene Robinson - The Washington Post

Multiple investigations have found no evidence of fraud or manipulation of data. Unless Perry is ready to publish fundamental new insights into physical and chemical processes at the molecular level, his swaggering stance against climate science is all hat and no cattle.

Rick Perry should stop and think - Richard Cohen - The Washington Post

Whatever global warming might or might not have done to polar bears, it has put Rick Perry’s presidential candidacy at risk. The Republican Texas governor clings to an ice floe of diminishing credibility, emerging in just about a week’s time as intellectually unqualified to be president. He engaged in a brief dialogue with a child about evolution and came out the loser. Perry said there are some gaps in the theory. If so, he is one.

Maybe more important, Perry waxed wrongly on global warming. He rejected the notion that it is at least partially a product of industrialization, asserting that “a substantial number of scientists have manipulated data” to make it appear that mankind — our cars, trains, automobiles, not to mention China’s belching steel mills — is the culprit. He said that an increasing number of scientists have challenged this notion and that, in conclusion, he stood with them — whoever they might be. In Appleton, Wis., Sen. Joe McCarthy’s skeleton rattled a bit.

The late and hardly lamented demagogue pioneered the political use of the concocted statistic. In his case, it was communists, and they were, literally, everywhere. There were some, of course, just as there are some scientists who are global-warming skeptics, but these few — about 2 percent of climate researchers — could hold their annual meeting in a phone booth, if there are any left. (Perhaps 2 percent of scientists think there are.)

Richard Cohen - The Washington Post

Richard Cohen writes a weekly political column that appears on Tuesdays. He also contributes to the PostPartisan blog. Cohen joined The Post in 1968 as a reporter and covered night police, city hall, education, state government and national politics.