Steve Lonegan anti-Cap and Trade Road Show

Went to see the Steve Lonegan anti-Cap and Trade Road Show last night. This one in Clinton, in the heart of conservative-right wing-libertarian Lonegan country.

Packed house for the usual right-wing debunking of the global warming "myth/conspiracy". On hand, of course, was Assemblyman Mike Doherty, the original anti-global warming zealot.

Packed house—all the usual Republicans were there: Hunterdon Chairman Kuhl (no question with a name like that he be opposed to global warming); the aforementioned Mike Doherty, who had his own anti-global warming road show while back---the one where he was asked if he believed in evolution, and he said, “It does not matter. Evolution or creationism. It just does not matter.” Erik Peterson, the winner of the political sweepstakes shift when Leonard Lance won his seat in Congress.

Missing were State Senator Marcia Karrow and Congressman Lance, himself.

Lance has always been a good thinker, and an independent legislator, by and large. No doubt he is a Republican by philosophy, geography and family lineage ----however in a district that went big time for Lonegan in the gubernatorial primary, he may be shifting too far to the center to suit some of the RLC* folks –*Republican Conservative-Libertarian. His vote for Cap -n- Trade was one of the few Republican votes in Congress. Three from NJ, so he was not alone. But the usually popular Lance got booed last night.

Much of the anti-Cap and Trade was based on their “proof” that climate change does not exist. Debunking Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” with stories by John Stossell about how a photo of a polar bear was taken in August; how the whole global warming conspiracy can be traced somehow to Goldman Sachs, who would make billions on Cap n Trade; and how their science (which comes from ‘objective’ sources like The Heritage Foundation) was just seeking The Truth.

Anyway, 250 or so angry folks sat and listened to Lonegan, who cracked jokes (“Proof of climate change for me is the change in women’s lingerie over the years.”), asserted that Friends of The Earth and the Sierra Club were “communist front groups” (Are you listening Comrade Tittle?) and got cued-boos when he mentioned Obama, Gore, or Lance.

By way, maybe the liberalism is catching: Congressman Lance and Al Gore both went to the same law school, Vanderbilt University Law School.

Anyway, if any of the folks there did not see “An Inconvenient Truth”, it is now available on DVD.

Cap and Trade is what the Republicans always say they want: tax incentives to promote environmental protection, rather than government regulation.