Mr. Barton Has a Lot to Apologize For

Representative Joe Barton has now famously “apologized” for his apology to BP’s CEO Tony Hayward.

If anything I've said this morning has been misconstrued I want to apologize for that misconstrued -- misconstruction.

Misconstrued? Really? This is a Washington apology if I have ever seen one.

Anyway, since Mr. Barton apparently likes to apologize, here is a sample of Bartonisms I’m still waiting to hear a heartfelt apology for:

 May 19, 2009:

CO2, carbon dioxide, is not a pollutant in any normal definition of the term.

Sorry, the Supreme Court overruled you on that two years before you said it.

Mr. Barton, please apologize to the Supreme Court.

May 19, 2009:

There is a climate theory. And it’s a theory. It’s not a fact. It’s never been proven that increasing concentrations of CO2 in the upper atmosphere somehow interact to trap more heat than the atmosphere would otherwise

Sorry, the National Academy of Sciences recently concluded that

Climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities…and in many cases is already affecting a broad range of human and natural systems.

Mr. Barton, please apologize to the National Academy of Sciences

June, 2005:

The thing I would most like Mr. Barton to apologize for is his unwarranted and indefensible attack on Michael Mann in 2005. Mann is a scientist who has drawn the ire of climate change deniers because of his work demonstrating that the global warming observed over the last few decades is unprecedented not just in the last Century, but in the last Millennium. This doesn’t fit with their message that global warming is just part of a natural cycle, so they have sought to attack the messenger. Most recently, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has renewed the attack by attempting to obtain thousands of private documents from when Mann was at the University of Virginia.

Sorry, every independent review has backed up his science and his conduct. The National Academy of Sciences validated his fundamental scientific conclusions; Penn State (his current affiliation) cleared him of allegations stemming from stolen emails, and the University of Virginia is fighting Cuccinelli’s civil subpoena.

Mr Barton, please apologize to Michael Mann

And while you are at it, please apologize to the American people.

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