Complete Lunatic of the Week

Vice President Al Gore testified earlier this week before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on the effects of global warming. His appearance was progressing as a typical committee hearing until the opportunity came for Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) to "question" Vice President Gore. (Inhofe and his moronic beliefs have been the subject of a recent posting.) However, due to Inhofe's extremely immature and childish behavior (constant interruptions, condescending tone, etc.), unfortunately Vice President Gore did not actually have much of a chance to appropriately respond. The following information is actual dialogue from the hearing transcript:

1. After Vice President Gore delivered his opening remarks, Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) commented that every single Democrat on the committee was present for the hearing.
Inhofe: "[Barack] Obama's not here."
Boxer: "Obama's not longer on this committee."
Inhofe: "Oh, OK."
Comment: Are you kidding me? Inhofe is the Ranking Minority Member on the Environment and Public Works Committee and he doesn't know who is currently on the committee and who is not.

2. Lamenting the fact that he had only 15 minutes (which was no less than any other committee member) to pose questions to Vice President Gore:
Inhofe: "I've structured my questions so they're yes or no questions and they don't require a lot of elaboration."
Note: Gore laughed following this statement, as well he should. How could Inhofe think that any response to such a complex issue as global warming could be limited to one word answers?

3. After Inhofe demanded Vice President Gore take an absurd Personal Energy Ethics Pledge and then insulted Gore for purchasing carbon offsets, these three ridiculous exchanges occurred over the course of a few minutes.
Gore: "First of all, Senator, thank you so much for your question."
Inhofe: "Alright. I noticed Tipper didn't say 'thank you' for the question."

Gore: "If I could just continue with my..."
Inhofe: "Well, you can't."
Boxer: "You've asked the Senator [Gore] an important question. He's answering it. Give him a minute or so to answer it."
Inhofe: "Alright. If you could just stop the clock during this time, that'd be fine."
Boxer: "No, I am not going to stop the clock. He has a minute to answer. How can you ask the question and not give the man a minute to answer? Please."
Note: When Vice President Gore was initially interrupted, he had only been speaking for 25 seconds.

Inhofe: "Alright, Senator Gore, I'm very sorry. I don't want to be rude but, from now on, I'm going to ask you to respond for the record in writing. Since you are not going to respond...unless you change your mind."
Gore: "Well, if I choose, if I choose to respond to you verbally here, I hope that'll be OK too."
Inhofe: "If it's a very brief response."
Comment: I would love to know how many people have been asked to testify in front of Congress and then required to submit their responses in writing. I would imagine the number is extremely low.

4. Inhofe then commented about a recent magazine article which described Vice President Gore's beliefs towards global warming as too alarmist.
Inhofe: "Now I'll ask you to respond in writing for that one because that would be a very long response, I'm afraid."
Boxer: "We're freezing the time just for a minute. I want, I want to talk to you for a minute please. Would you, would you agree, would you agree to let the Vice President answer your questions and then, if you want an extra few minutes at the end, I'm happy to give it to you. But we're not going to get anywhere."
Inhofe: "Why don't we do this? Why don't we do this? At the end, you can have as much time as you want to answer all of the questions."
Boxer: "No, that isn't the rule of the...you're not making the rules. You used to when you did this (holding up gavel). You don't do this anymore. Elections have consequences. Elections have consequences so I make the rules."
Comment: Although I am not a big fan of Boxer's, I was more than happy to see her put Inhofe in his place.

5. Inhofe then proceeded to provide a list of scientists who supposedly disagree with Vice President Gore's point of view. (One of those individuals is Claude Allegre, an infamous French geochemist. Please keep in mind that, in 2000, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin replaced Allegre as his Minister of Education due to his inappropriate management style. This came after the main national professors' unions conducted demonstrations throughout France, demanding for Allegre's dismissal.) When Vice President Gore attempted to present his own evidence:
Inhofe: "Senator Gore, my time has almost expired completely. Are you aware of that?"
Gore: "If I could complete my answer..."
Inhofe: "Well, if you do, then my time's expired. Are you aware of that? Do you care?"
Gore: "Well, I, I can't help that because you went on for a long time. But I would like to..."
Inhofe (whining like a five year old): "No, I have fifteen minutes. You have thirty minutes, I have fifteen. You've got to let me have my fifteen minutes, Senator Gore. I can respond to what you said."
Gore: "If I could, if I could just complete my response..."
Inhofe: "Well, you've already done it."
Note: Following Inhofe's four minute monologue, he interrupted Gore in this instance after only ninety seconds.

6. At this point, Inhofe provided a 1975 statement from the National Academy of Sciences which "asserted" that a global cooling was a finite possibility in the next 100 years. (To be honest, I am not really sure how a statement from more than thirty years ago about a possible global cooling can be classified as an assertion.)
Gore: "Could I comment on that?"
Inhofe: "All respect, Senator Gore, we can't do that. You know that."
Comment: Actually I am not sure if Vice President Gore is aware of that. I am fairly confident he feels, as I do, that a Congressional hearing should allow for the sharing of ideas from both viewpoints.

7. When Inhofe again mentions the scientists who disagree with Vice President Gore, he inaccurately claims:
Inhofe: "I've listed all of the scientists who disagree with you and you did not respond to that question."
Comment: This is completely inaccurate, Mr. Inhofe, because Vice President Gore did comment about that earlier in the hearing and you interrupted him. Unfortunately you were there at the time so you should know.