"Al, It's Cold Outside"

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"Al, It’s Cold Outside"
by Robert Yoho, Columnist and Senior Editor

January 20, 2004

"Eye on Conservatism"

Columnist Robert Yoho Former VP Al Gore (AP) While New York City was experiencing its coldest day in decades, former Vice President Al Gore gave a speech there accusing the Bush administration of implementing policies that are directly responsible for global warming. The speech was sponsored by MoveOn.org, the left wing fringe group that is quickly becoming the militant mainstream of today’s Democrat Party.

"I don’t think there is any longer a credible basis," Gore said, "for doubting that the Earth’s atmosphere is heating up because of global warming."

Really, Al? Please tell that to the people of New England, who are seeing their heating bills soar as the mercury plunges and are desperately counting the remaining days until spring. No doubt many of them wish there was some hard evidence to substantiate the unproven theory of global warming!

Before the speech, sources said that Gore told his advisors, "The extreme conditions are actually the end result of the planet warming. The Bush policies are leading to weather extremes."

To call this speech another Gore "gaffe" would be remarkably charitable. Although several of his senior advisors warned against it, Gore proceeded to deliver this discourse while much of the Northeast was experiencing near-record frigid temperatures and wind chill extremes. It also lends further proof to the idea that Gore is not only out of touch with the American people, but that he is also out in the cold when it comes to reality.

As one of the fifteen or twenty people who have actually read Gore’s 1992 book, "Earth in the Balance," I can firmly state that the former vice president is out-of-step with everyday Americans and disconnected from legitimate environmental science. But then again, the self-professed inventor of the internet has never let the truth get in the way of a good story. Even the former vice president knows that scientists and the results of their climate models do not reach a consensus on global climate changes. He also knows that these changes are cyclical.

Speaking before a large crowd at the Beacon Theater in Manhattan, Gore trotted out the same tired allegations that every Democrat has leveled against every Republican president or GOP candidate since Ronald Reagan. He accused the current administration of being "wholly owned by the coal, oil, utility and mining industries."

One would think these limousine liberals could eventually come up with some new material.

Gore criticized the Bush-Cheney administration of trying to open up the Arctic Wildlife Refuge to drilling and for not ratifying the Kyoto treaty, an agreement that would devastate our economy and lead to massive unemployment while it rewarded developing nations that do not currently meet our own economic standards.

"While President Bush likes to project an image of strength and courage," Gore said in his speech, "the real truth is that in the presence of his large financial contributors, he is a moral coward."

I will be the first to admit that it takes more than one’s share of chutzpah to lecture people on global warming during the midst of Arctic temperatures. But are we expected to believe that it’s an act of extreme moral courage for Al Gore to go out shilling for the wealthy Democrat contributors of MoveOn.org? No, this was the same type of cheap political pandering that he criticizes in others.

This speech to the frozen citizens of New York was also given a chilly reception by Republicans on Capitol Hill. House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican, said it was "fitting that Mr. Gore chose one of the coldest days of the year to spread false information about the Bush administration's record on global warming."

"Mother Nature didn't agree with his message, and neither do I," the congressman said. "Al, it's cold outside."

Yes, it most certainly is cold outside! Moreover, everybody but Al Gore knows it. While New Yorkers are suffering from frigid temperatures and near-record wind chills, they can all feel better that "Woodsy" Al Gore blew into town, spreading his message on the dangers of global warming. Nothing could be more welcome in the Big Apple right now than a little hot air! ***

Photo of Robert Yoho courtesy of staff files
Photo of Al Gore courtesy of the Associated Press