If GOP Wins Majority, Climategate Will Be the Top "Oversight" Priority

by Nikki Gloudeman · 2010-09-27 06:30:00 UTC
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Talk about a skewed priority: If the GOP takes over the House this November, California Rep. Darrell Issa has vowed he will make investigating Climategate his Number 1 priority as head of the chamber’s oversight committee.

Is it so shocking that Issa wants to delve further into those infamous East Anglia University e-mails, which suggested an exaggeration of global warming figures? Not really. After all, Republicans have been throwing a hissy fit over the e-mails ever since they were uncovered nearly a year ago.

But putting this issue at the very top of a political agenda is pretty ludicrous, even considering the party’s usual modus operandi. It’s actually unfathomable that the man potentially leading the Oversight and Government Reform Committee would consider an investigation into the personal e-mails of scientists more important than keeping watch over further financial ruin, political corruption, or any number of other issues our country faces.

The real kicker of whole thing, though, is that the e-mails have already been investigated—over, and over, and over again. In fact, a steady stream of reports, by bodies including the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, Science Assessment Panel and Penn State University, have all cleared Climategate scientists of any wrongdoing.  One would think this would be enough to silence the skeptics, and allow our country to finally move on from this overinflated scandal.

I guess for Issa, there may be no moving on. And if he has his way, and the Dems lose come fall, our country will suffer because of it.

You can make your voice heard by signing this Change.org petition, which will send a letter to Issa telling him to "let Climategate go!"

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

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Nikki Gloudeman is a senior fellow at Mother Jones magazine where she writes about the environment and other topics.

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