Never Admit Error

Credit Rush Limbaugh for inadvertently demonstrating the difference between conservatives (most of them, anyway) and most liberals. The GOP leader on Tuesday attacked Democrats for trying to force Michael Steele out of his position as chairman of the Republican National Committee notwithstanding the dejure and defacto inability of the Democratic Party to do anything to Michael Steele..... That, and the wish of most Democrats that Steele remain head of the RNC, where his foolish statements may continue to divide the GOP and hurt his party. Not surprisingly, Rush raised the issue of race, probably because Rush almost always raises the issue of race, playing the race card being a speciality of his.

So it was that a monologue about Michael Steele turned to Barack Obama to Robert Byrd to Joe Biden (is there a Kevin Bacon game in here somewhere?) Of the late West Virginia Senator, Limbaugh claimed

Yeah, he had to join the Klan to get elected. So we need to cut the guy some slack. (impression)"That's right, Limbaugh. (chuckles) You nail it every time you analyze me. Exactly right. He had to do what he had to do. West Virginia, everybody knows the Klan had a big beachhead in there and if you wanted to get elected to something, you had to first join the Klan. But we have to look the other way 'cause he spent the rest of life trying to make up for it." No, he didn't, Mr. President. He voted against every black Supreme Court nominee came down the pike. So maybe we should forgive Michael Steele because he's young. He's doing things here in his relative youth, just as Robert Byrd did in his. I mean, Clinton and Obama told us so last week. When Byrd was youthful, say between ages 28 and 51, he did this. We were told to forgive Robert Byrd his cyclops position. That was a recruiter. He founded a Klan chapter!

There is, obviously, no analogy to Michael Steele. Still, it's noteworthy that Senator Byrd admitted of his ignominious past

I know now I was wrong. Intolerance had no place in America. I apologized a thousand times ... and I don't mind apologizing over and over again. I can't erase what happened.

"I know now I was wrong. Intolerance had no place in America..... and I don't mind apologizing over and over again." Words which will never pass the lips of most Republicans, especially Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.

For it was Rush Limbaugh who said in November, 2009 (and nearly the same thing on other occasions)

A great illustration is what's happening here with what is now incontrovertibly known as a hoax. We know that the lead place, this Climate Research Unit at East Anglia University -- which is the number one advisor and communicator with the IPCC, which is the UN's climate-control crowd.

We know that data was made up to advance the notion that man is causing the climate to warm. We know that data was purposely left out that hides the fact that the earth is cooling. Even on this bunch's website, they cannot hide the fact that temperatures have not increased the last ten years, and they've had to come up with some of the most irrational, illogical explanations for it.

As linked to by Media Matters for America, Penn State University concluded on June 4, 2010:

The Investigatory Committee, after careful review of all available evidence, determined that ther is no substance to the allegation against Dr. Michael E. Mann, Professor, Department of Meteorology, The Pennsylvania State University.

More specifically, the Investigatory Committee determined that Dr. Michael E. Mann did not engage in, nor did he participate in, directly or indirectly, any action that knowingly deviated from accepted practices within the academic community for proposing, conducting, or reporting research or other scholarly activities.

The decision of the Investigatory Committee was unanimous.

Admittedly, it was not only conservatives but also the mainstream media which hyped a story, thereby doing the dirty work of the far right. Fox News' Stuart Varney, Bill Hemmer, Chris Wallace, Gretchen Carlson, and Sean Hannity joined Limbaugh in trumping up the incident as "Climategate" and perpetrating the hoax upon their listeners. Hosts or correspondents on CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC also jumped on the bandwagon.

But the underlying issue, obviously, is climate change. All winter, the right wing ridiculed the idea of global warming during the snowstorms (extroardinary events which supported the idea of warming). They now are noticeably silent about the weather and it's unlikely that conservative talk radio hosts or GOP TV will as aggressively note

The combined global land and ocean surface temperature was the warmest on record for May, March-May (Northern Hemisphere spring-Southern Hemisphere autumn), and the period January-May according to NOAA. Worldwide average land surface temperature for May and March-May was the warmest on record while the global ocean surface temperatures for both May and March-May were second warmest on record, behind 1998.

The monthly analysis from NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center, which is based on records going back to 1880, is part of the suite of climate services NOAA provides government, business and community leaders so they can make informed decisions.

The evidence having been virtually unassailable before this recent report, few minds will be changed by the unseasonable warmth of the first five months of this year. Conservatives largely will ignore the new climate data, just as they will refuse to acknowledge that they were wrong in claiming a nefarious plot behind research cofirming the role of greenhouse gases in effecting climate change. Being a conservative Republican means never, ever having to admit being wrong, a far cry from the character Robert Byrd demonstrated in his later years.

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