Senator Inhofe: This is a huge issue and of course we have the Gitmo issue and we have the, of course, cap-and-trade is now taking a new turn. Jed, if I could…

Jed Babbin: Yeah.

Senator Inhofe: Would you let me make one sentence?

Jed Babbin: Please.

Senator Inhofe: This is out of a speech that I made, Melanie, back on the floor of the Senate, and it was repeated, John Gizzi picked it up and put it in Human Events. This was 4 years ago, in talking about the science, cooking the science. I said I would discuss the “systematic and documented abuse of the scientific process by which an international body that claims it provides the most complete and objective science assessment in the world on the subject of climate change, the United Nations IPCC.” Now that was four years ago; so we knew they were cooking the science back then, and you’ve been talking about the, you know, what’s happened recently with the bloggers coming up with what they did, what they…

Jed Babbin: Let me interrupt you there Senator, because I think that’s a really important point. Ladies and gentlemen, if you haven’t followed that story, what Senator Inhofe’s talking about, in Britain, a blogger got into some of the official government records about climate change and how the measurements were being taken to show…

Melanie Morgan: And the politics behind it.

Jed Babbin: And the – well but they were basically saying, “Oh yea, hey, let’s make it look like Jim so-and-so did that, and let’s help him cook the books, and let’s change the data…”

Melanie Morgan: And “let’s beat up those who don’t agree with us.”

Jed Babbin: Yea, but it’s all a huge fraud! I mean, Senator, am I exaggerating?

Dead policy walking? That's how one blogger described global warming legislation in the U.S. Senate - which Majority Leader Harry Reid put on ice this week, astutely recognizing the public and the politics are against this turkey.

"We're going to try to do that sometime in the spring," Reid said. But everyone knows the cap-and-trade bill crafted by Sens. Barbara Boxer of California and John Kerry of Massachusetts is deader than dead, because no one wants to face the voters next November having voted for an economy restricting, jobs-killing bill. Reid, facing a tough re-election race in Nevada, knows this better than most.

The development makes Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Tulsa, look like a prophet for predicting its demise even after the House of Representatives passed its version of cap and trade in June. Inhofe knew the arm bars and full nelsons used to force the bill through the House wouldn't hold sway in the Senate.

The legislation would require the United States to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases 20 percent by 2020 - levels last seen in 1977. The penalty in job losses and costs passed on to consumers make no sense, especially with unemployment in double digits. Reid's sounding of retreat was an easy call.

Fading along with Boxer-Kerry is any prospect next month's global warming conference in Denmark will do more than emit its own share of hot air. Oddly, Cap-and-trade disciples think that will relieve pressure, helping their legislation get through the Senate next year, the technical term for which is "whistling past the graveyard."

The Environment and Public Works committee is engaged in public partisan warfare over a climate bill, a battle that foreshadows the deep struggle the Obama administration will face as Democrats attempt to push a version of the sweeping legislation through the Senate.

Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Ca.) was expected to move forward with her bill on Friday, even as all seven Republicans on the committee threatened to boycott any mark-up hearing held next week.

Republicans say that EPW rules prohibit Boxer from holding a mark-up without two Republicans present. Democratic aides for Boxer and other members indicated that they had found a way around that rule, saying that they expected to proceed with the hearing on Tuesday, even if Republicans don't attend.

In today's hearing, the EPW Committee heard a few key things about Kerry-Boxer:

- It will undermine the global competitiveness of America's manufacturers, and give a huge competitive advantage to countries such as China and India.

- It will weaken America's national security because it will weaken the economy, and thus compromise our ability to protect the country against foreign threats.

- It is an energy tax that will make consumers pay higher prices for electricity.

On October 27, 2009, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) appeared before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works to speak on behalf of the Kerry-Boxer cap-and-trade bill. Sen. Kerry spoke uncontested for 28 minutes, allowing no time for questions by members of the Committee.

The following is a line-by-line analysis of Sen. Kerry's assertions. In reading through the document, one will see that Sen. Kerry is badly misinformed about the many of the key details and issues surrounding the climate change policy debate.