WaxWorks
|
Friday, March 23, 2007
The Prophet
Dana Milbank of the Washington Post had a good column yesterday about Al Gore's testimony before Congress on global warming, where Gore showed once again that he is a step ahead of his critics and even displayed a nice wit. Here's a few excerpts:
Gore entered the room with wife Tipper clutching his hand and cowboy boots
gripping his feet. His face was puffier, his body thicker and his hair grayer,
but he retained his inner wonk. "The concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere up
here on Capitol Hill," he announced, "is already 383 parts per million."
He also displayed the passion that made his documentary a hit in Hollywood.
"What we're facing now is a crisis that is by far the most serious that we've
ever faced," he declared. His eyes narrowing to slits, he proposed a series of
questions future generations might ask about the current inaction on greenhouse
gases. "What in God's name were they doing?" he asked. "What was wrong with
them? Were they too blinded and numbed by the busyness of political life or
daily life to take a deep breath and look at the reality of what we're
facing?"
Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) called Gore a "prophet" -- and his Democratic
colleagues treated him as such. Gore got a hearty ovation when he visited the
House floor during a lunchtime vote.
Republicans found all the fuss rather distasteful. A sour Dennis Hastert
(Ill.), the former House speaker, called him "a personality and now a movie
star."
"Rin Tin Tin was a movie star," Gore demurred. "I just have a slide
show."
At one point Rep. Barton (R-TX) took issue with Gore's view, leading to this exchange:
Barton informed Gore that some of his ideas "are just flawed." Under Gore's
plan, Barton said, "we can have no new industry, no new cars and trucks on the
streets, and apparently no new people."
But this was no match for Gore. "The planet has a fever," he lectured
Barton. "If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If the doctor says you
need to intervene here, you don't say, 'Well, I read a science fiction novel
that tells me it's not a problem.' If the crib's on fire, you don't speculate
that the baby is flame-retardant. You take action."
The audience laughed. Barton started reading the newspaper, then discovered
he wasn't getting much support even from his own side. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.)
admitted he paid to see "An Inconvenient Truth." Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.),
implicitly rebuking flat-Earth colleagues, said: "It's possible to be a
conservative without appearing to be an idiot." Barton flashed a grin of
annoyance.
Mixing it up with Senator Inhofe (R-OK), Gore had this to say:
Gore, given ample time to rebut Inhofe, had no shortage of material. "One
of the leading scientific experts said the consensus supporting this view on
global warming is as strong as anything in science -- with the possible
exception of gravity," he said.
The audience laughed. Boxer smiled. Inhofe did not. He left the show
early.
Things got a little testy between Gore and Inhofe, leading Chairperson Boxer to jump in when Inhofe was insisting that Gore respond in writing to his questions, rather than take up Inhofe's time by having the gall to want to -- gasp -- actually orally respond during the hearing. Boxer told Inhofe, while she held up the gavel, "No, you're not making the rules. You used to when you had this. But elections have consequences!"
And, coming off his triumphant appearance at the Academy Awards, Gore apparently ended his appearance on this note:
Evening was approaching when the ordeal ended and the movie star turned to
the committee chairman, Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). "You don't give out any kind
of statue or anything?" he inquired.
