Oversight, At Long Last

So much is going on in Washington DC right now, that it could make your head spin. While my colleagues here at TBV stay afloat with the ongoing fun at the Justice Dept and White House, I do want to point out what's been happening in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which after last November's Democratic majority in the House is now chaired by Henry Waxman (D-CA), and is actually getting down to doing some Oversight, and hopefully will move on to Reform. This week the Committee is holding hearings on the blatant Political Interference with Climate Science that has reigned virtually unchecked during this administration.

We've written about Phillip Cooney, Bush's former chief of staff of the White House Council on Environmental Quality in this blog before (here, here and here, and most likely there's more, but I understand your time is limited), and on Monday he got to try to defend his actions on a panel (Former White House official defends editing of climate papers) that also included NASA climate scientist James Hansen (on whom we have also written here extensively, but you can play catch-up via the links on the current story), whose positions were vindicated by the Committee as it plowed through massive documentation (much of which is available on the link to the hearings above.)Here is a direct link to Hansen's testimony, from which today's blog quote is taken. A quote which I think applies to many levels and spheres of this administration's governing. Chris Mooney, my favorite science/journalism blogger (The Intersection) is covering the hearings live from D.C. on his blog, but posted his story on the Cooney/Hansen?et al Monday hearing at The Huffington Post: NASA, Political Interference, and the Vindication of James Hansen.

Al Gore testified before the Committee this morning, and Chris already has a post up on The Intersection about his testimony, with a YouTube video link to it. I got a good shot in the arm from Chris' PPS on his Gore post:

Maybe I heard incorrectly, but I am pretty sure that at the end of the hearing the chair, John Dingell, referred to Gore as "Mr. President," rather than "Mr. Vice President"...

Gore is also due to appear before Barbara Boxer's Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works later today, and I'm at work right now on my next post, which is about that Committee and Boxer's work.

If this is a subject about which you are passionate, or even just sorta interested, please keep up with Chris' coverage in his blog and anywhere else he's writing...I can't hope to match his live-and-in-person bird's eye view of this at-long-last attention being paid in high places to climate science and its importance.

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