SEE UPDATE BELOW FROM MONCKTON
I’m out of the political loop, and have no way of judging the merit of the claim, so I’m just going to link to this story. If it is true, it shows just how bad the treatment of different viewpoints has become in Washington. Perhaps Lord Monckton can give a comment or two here to either bolster or refute this story.
Report: Democrats Refuse to Allow Skeptic to Testify Alongside Gore At Congressional Hearing
Thursday, April 23, 2009 By Marc Morano
‘House Democrats don’t want Gore humiliated’
Climate Depot Exclusive
Washington DC — UK’s Lord Christopher Monckton, a former science advisor to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, claimed House Democrats have refused to allow him to appear alongside former Vice President Al Gore at high profile global warming hearing on Friday April 24, 2009 at 10am in Washington. Monckton told Climate Depot that the Democrats rescinded his scheduled joint appearance at the House Energy and Commerce hearing on Friday. Monckton said he was informed that he would not be allowed to testify alongside Gore when his plane landed from England Thursday afternoon.
“The House Democrats don’t want Gore humiliated, so they slammed the door of the Capitol in my face,” Monckton told Climate Depot in an exclusive interview. “They are cowards.”
UPDATE 8:30PM PST Lord Monckton weighed in on this story in comments. I thank hi for his candor and for telling his story firsthand here. He writes:
Once again I’m most grateful to Anthony Watts and his hard-working team for their kindness in exposing the less than democratic tactics of the Obama Democrats. The story circulated by the indefatigable Marc Morano is – as one would expect – accurate in every particular.
Early this week the Democrats told the Republicans they would have a “celebrity witness” for this morning’s hearing on the Waxman/Markey Bill, but they would not say who. The Republicans immediately contacted me and asked if they could tell the Dems they too were putting forward an undisclosed celebrity witness – me.
When the Dems eventually revealed that their “celebrity” was Al Gore, the Republicans told them I was to testify at the same time. The Dems immediately refused to allow the Republicans their first choice of witness. By the time they had refused, my jet was already in the air from London and I did not get the message till I landed in the US.
At first the Dems tried to refuse the Republicans the chance to replace me with a witness more congenial to them, but eventually – after quite a shouting-match – they agreed to let Newt Gingrich testify. The former Speaker of the House gave one of his best performances.
I attended the session anyway, as a member of the public, and tried to shake hands with Gore when he arrived, but his cloud of staffers surrounded him and he visibly flinched when I called out a friendly “Hello” to him.
His testimony was as inaccurate as ever. He repeated many of the errors identified by the High Court in the UK. He appeared ill at ease and very tired – perhaps reflecting on the Rasmussen poll that shows a massive 13.5% swing against the bedwetters’ point of view in just one year.
My draft testimony will be posted at http://www.scienceandpublicpolicy.org shortly, together with a brief refutation of Gore’s latest errors.
Finally, I have never said what one of your less polite correspondents has said I said about HIV. However, in 1987, at the request of the earliest researchers into the disease, I wrote articles in journals on both sides of the Atlantic recommending that AIDS should be treated as a notifiable disease, just like any other fatal, incurable infection. Had that standard public-health measure been taken – immediate, compulsory, permanent, but humane isolation of the then rather few carriers – many of the 25 million (UNAIDS figures) who have died and the 40 million who are currently infected and heading for death would have been spared. Sometimes, unfashionable points of view are right, and sometimes ignoring them can be a matter of life and death.
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One of the witnesses listed for these hearings is Dr. Jay Apt from Carnegie Mellon University. He has this to say in his testimony:
“Removing 80% of the CO2 we emit today from electric power generation with the most cost-effective technologies we know about will cost us about 2/3 of one percent of GDP annually. That’s about what we spent on the Clean Air Act. That amount is affordable. But if we try to specify which technologies – like renewables – are the only ones that need apply and don’t allow the least expensive clean technologies to compete, these costs can grow to unaffordable levels.”
I doubt the committee members pay much attention to anything that doesn’t come out of Al Gore’s mouth, but we should keep this in mind when they all start claiming that they had no idea their plan wouldn’t work. They know, they have some of the brightest minds in the country warning them, and we need to hold them accountable when the time comes.
I am reminded that the late William F. Buckley, Jr, when asked why Robert Kennedy refused to debate him, asked in response, ‘Why does baloney refuse the grinder?’
Morano should consider interviewing Monckton on the implications of this bottling out and publicising a YouTube posting of it. It might be a surprise hit like Daniel Hannon’s recent EU opportunity to confront Gordon Brown. Reaching the green-indoctrinated younger generation audience with hard truths is important.
The whole meeting is a sham, if you live in the USA, your going to pay CO2 taxes, period! The only thing one can do is never vote for another lying democrat the rest of your life.
ps, since both sides lie, I have no idea who you can vote for instead.
If someone in Federal or State Prosecutors Offices had some guts, I think that Al Gore could be brought up on RICO charges becasue he is a undeclared lobbyist and also promotes his investment interests without declaring them. He is just a con man with a “democrat royality” pedigree.
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/images/stories/press_releases/monckton-response-to-gore-errors.pdf
errors in Gore’s movie
JohnD (23:48:03) wrote: “CO2wards”
Wish I’d thought of that, John.
If he worked for Thatcher … no wonder 🙂 She stated that leaded gasoline posed no health risks to people in the UK and that there was no need to remove lead from the fuel.
Monckton has demolished the pro-AGW debaters in every debate he’s been in. That’s why they’re barring him — his presence would result in another loss for Al Gore. Thus the underhanded tactics.
This isn’t news to me. Gore doesn’t allow journalists in to watch his presentations (presumably because the pesky critters are capable of asking difficult questions, although from my experience with the MSM, I don’t think they can be bothered to do so very often).
How is this allowed to happen? Freedom of speech I suppose – freedom to spin and a credulous and lazy media.
I don’t often allow myself to sink to such poor taste, but the first thought that came to my mind was “What’s the doughboy afraid of?”
Aside to non-US readers, non ice cream eaters, and fans of underdogs, see http://www.rezoom.com/money/from-the-vault/read/5679/
Further aside to non-US readers, see http://www.pillsbury.com/aall/default.aspx
@Flanagan (23:41:26) :
“How do you want someone who once said that “heterosexual AIDS transmission is a myth” and that “all people infected by VIH should be quarantined for life, this is until they actually die of it” to participate a democratic debate?
I really understand the point of view of the organizers, there.”
Nice ad hom there, Flanagan. A fine example of the technique and a shining example for others. Read and learn, WUWT visitors.
I’ll never understand how this is an issue that became politisized. It’s got to the point where Dems are acting like Repubs about the whole issue. Calling people deniers and shutting down any debate is no different than the other side calling people unpatriotic and stopping debate on the Iraq war.
@ur momisugly Matt Bennett (02:06:50): You do both evolutionary and climate science a huge disservice by comparing the two.
Scenes we’d like to see:
Monckton: I move we adjourn to the nearest beach on the Atlantic. Mr. Gore will demonstrate the dramatic rise in the ocean to the members of this Committee.
Mr. Gore: Can I be excused, I have pressing matters?
Ema Nymton (02:28:36) :
[hmm…I think all your posts will likely be deleted given this pattern of profanity] ~ charles the moderator
Ema’s name backward is NotMyName. Sounds like a loser to me.
So this is what was ment by the phrase “the debate is over”
“The world’s biggest cargo carriers, including Maersk and IM Skaugen, have begun talks with power companies in Britain and Europe that could see them build new fleets of tankers specially made to transport the greenhouse gas captured from clean-coal power stations.”
Has anyone told Somali pirates about this?
There are plenty of other persons that Barton could have chosen – Americans, scientists
I’ll ignore the xenophobia, but he only needs to know more science than Gore, which probably isn’t too difficult.
Reminds me of the two hikers woken up by a bear. One puts on his track shoes, while the other looks bemused, pointing out that neither of them can outrun a bear. “I don’t have to” says his friend, “I just need to outrun you”.
Gore Error #5: Snows of Kilimanjaro melting due to global warming.
The Snows are melting most likely due to deforestation, the very same thing that undid the Mayans, not CO2 levels. The Mayans were making Lime Slime for their shiny temples. Gore is making Green Slime for his shiny temple.
I found Monckton’s letter (thanks for posting the link here) to be an invaluable ready reference of excellent arguments and facts. It’s a shame that Waxman and his people are so clueless and rude -if they had not been ready to deal with the sparks at a Gore-Monckton debate, they should have never extended an invitation. It is a little late and weak to argue “Oh, Monckton has no standing, he’s not an American.” In any case, all we ever hear from the AGW folks is how the crisis transcends all national boundaries. So this is a transparently cowardly act. But it’s their party, they can hide if they want to.
Meanwhile the facts will keep coming out. Thanks in large measure to the quality of the science and debate at sites like WUTW. Well done.
Ask Mr Gore how did he travel to this meeting and what’s the carbon footprint? What car did he drive to the airport? Where were you and what were you doing on Earth day? Mr Gore are emitting more GHG’s then this entire panel today because you are fat? Why are you so fat if it’s so harmful to the enviroment? Mr Gore are you aware that this panel would not allow a joint appearance with Mr Monckton or was it you who made this demand? Why are you a skeptic? When he says he’s not ask him what direct proof does he have that CO2 is harmful to humans? How many people have died due to Global Warming? Name them? If so can you direct us to the data that documents all of these deaths? What’s the difference between weather and climate?
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/24/climate-heavy-hitters-address-house-committee/
The Repubs have forced them to include Newt Gingrich in the discussion…Guess that’s the mystery guest.
This country gets more and more banana republic each day. The policy has already been decided. Facts be damned. This is all a dog and pony show and gives some Congressmen a chance to get their names in the paper and boost their ‘green creds’.
I especially liked this line…”He was added to the lineup late Thursday at the request of Republicans.”
Yea…After the Dems refused to let Mockton testify! Democracy at its finest!
The claim is in fact entirely false. If you look at the published notice of the hearing in the April 21st issue of CQToday (page 19) you find the following witness list:
Al Gore
John Warner
Ian Bowles
Dave McCurdy
Alan Reuther
Dan Sperling
David Friedman
David Gardiner
Jeff Genzer
Andrew Delaski
Bill Becker
Tia Nelson
Carl Royal
Jon Anda
David Doniger
Patricia Mulroy
In other words, Monckton was not scheduled to testify today, let alone on the Gore panel (Which is just Gore and former Senator John Warner (R-VA))
REPLY: That list could have been edited just hours ago, when did you acquire it? If you can show that it was originally published this way, then your point would be true. – Anthony
The story is a complete lie.