Corruption That's Hotter than Global Warming

Just check this article out.

Isn't this the saddest but least surprising story you've ever heard? Like this example:

In handwritten notes on drafts of several reports issued in 2002 and 2003, the official, Philip A. Cooney, removed or adjusted descriptions of climate research that government scientists and their supervisors, including some senior Bush administration officials, had already approved. In many cases, the changes appeared in the final reports.

The dozens of changes, while sometimes as subtle as the insertion of the phrase "significant and fundamental" before the word "uncertainties," tend to produce an air of doubt about findings that most climate experts say are robust.

There's nothing subtle about the word fundamental. This just goes to show how tame the media has become in condoning deceit. The man is fundamentally contradicting hard evidence gathered and worked on by scientists. Did that use of fundamental strike anyone as subtle?

Yet what's even worse is that the article manages to high-handedly gloss over the most damning part about the story.

Mr. Cooney is chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the office that helps devise and promote administration policies on environmental issues.

Before going to the White House in 2001, he was the "climate team leader" and a lobbyist at the American Petroleum Institute, the largest trade group representing the interests of the oil industry. A lawyer with a bachelor's degree in economics, he has no scientific training.

In what sane world would an oil lobbyist be a good candidate for the chief of staff for anything dealing with environmental quality? It's not just the Boltons and the Gonzaleses of the world we need to be worried about, although as controversial as they are they seem to get appointed anyway, it's every possible position. Why have we never heard of this guy before now? Why is the Times content to let it go at that? I think we can trust Cooney on environmental issues as much as we can trust Wimpy when he promises to pay you on Tuesday.