“The anti-science crowd has been doing a killer job pushing the myth that the big recent snowstorms somehow undercut our understanding of human-caused global warming,” writes ClimateProgress’ Joe Romm. Indeed, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), Sean Hannity, and even Donald Trump have found great pleasure in mocking Al Gore over the snowy winter storms. Today in a Nevada town hall meeting, President Obama took on the global warming deniers, explaining in straightforward language how record snowstorms in the nation’s capital are connected to manmade climate change:

First of all, we just got five feet of snow in Washington and so everybody’s like-a lot of the people who are opponents of climate change, they say, “See, look at that. There’s all this snow on the ground, you know, this doesn’t mean anything.” I want to just be clear that the science of climate change doesn’t mean that every place is getting warmer. It means the planet as a whole is getting warmer. But what it may mean is, for example, Vancouver which supposed to be getting snow during the Olympics, suddenly is at 55 degrees and Dallas suddenly is getting seven inches of snow. The idea is that as the planet as a whole gets warmer, you start seeing changing weather patterns and that creates more violent storm systems, more unpredictable weather. So any single place might end up being warmer. Another place might end up being a little bit cooler. There might end up being more precipitation in the air. More monsoons, more hurricanes, more tornadoes, more drought in some places, floods in other places.

Watch it:

Read the entire Global Boiling series at the Wonk Room.

Fox News correspondent Griff Jenkins, who often ambushes liberals for host Bill O’Reilly, appeared at CPAC this weekend to help cover the event for his network. When ThinkProgress found him, he was casually chatting with a gaggle of students about working at Fox News, and about conservatism in general. Asked about Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s ownership stake in News Corp — the parent company of Fox News — Jenkins dodged the question. Then, before ThinkProgress could continue the interview, Jenkins said any request for an interview had to be scheduled beforehand by his media relations personnel in New York:

JENKINS: I’m just covering CPAC for Greta, but listen, call the media relations people, we can do something about my coverage here, other than that, ask the media relations people.

[crosstalk]

TP: Do you ever extend that courtesy to the people you interview?

JEKINS: I gotta go buddy. [...]

TP: I’m just asking, when you ambush people, do you ever do that? [...]

JENKINS: I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but I’m working here.

TP: Yeah, but sometimes when you ambush people, they’re working too.

Watch it:

Jenkins proceeded to hide behind a phalanx of conservative volunteers for CPAC, and later returned to milling around with CPAC attendees. He is hypocritical for saying he shouldn’t be interviewed while at work. Over the course of his career, he has ambushed Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) while Grayson was at work, ambushed former Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) outside of him home, and Columbia professor Alan Brinkley on his way to work — all without scheduling an interview beforehand. Indeed, even Jenkin’s fellow ambusher at Fox News, Jesse Watters, stalked and harassed ThinkProgress editor Amanda Terkel while she was on vacation, without ever asking for an interview.

Late last year, the pro-gay rights Republican organization GOProud announced that it would co-sponsor the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), prompting a right-wing backlash which forced conference organizers to deny the organization a speaking spot during the conference. Today, Alexander McCobin, a member of Students for Liberty, took part of his speaking time to thank conference organizers for allowing GOProud to co-sponsor the conference, noting that Students for Liberty asks its members to be “socially tolerant and fiscally responsible.” McCobin was immediately met with angry boos and heckling by the audience:

MCCOBIN: In the name of freedom, I would like to also thank the American Conservative Union for welcoming GOProud as a co-sponsor of this event. (loud boos) Not because of any politics, but because of the message that it sends: If what you truly care about is freedom, limited government, and prosperity, then this symbol is a step in the right direction, and look to the student movement for support! (heckling) The typical Student’s response is to be socially tolerant and fiscally responsible. Students today recognize that freedom does not come in pieces. It is a single concept that we must defend at all times.

Watch it:

A few minutes later, Young Americans for Freedom activist Ryan Sorba approached the podium and slammed GOProud and engaged in a hostile shouting match with pro-gay rights students in the audience, singling out Executive Director of Young Americans for Liberty Jeff Frazee:

SORBA: I want to condemn CPAC for bringing GOProud to this event! (loud booing) I love it. I love it. Guess what. Guess what. Alright. Civil rights are granted in natural rights. Natural rights are granted in human nature. Human nature is a rational substance in relationship. The intelligible end of reproductive act is reproduction. Do you understand that? Civil rights when they conflict with natural rights are (yelling) No YOU sit down. The lesbians at Smith College protest better than you do. The lesbians at Smith College protest better than you do. Alright? Bring it. Jeff Frazee, guess what, you just made an enemy out of me, buddy. Yeah you, guess what. YOU just made an enemy out of me, thanks a lot.

Watch it:

Yesterday, the anti-gay rights National Organization for Marriage criticized the presence of GOProud at the conference in a news release following a joint appearance on CNN, prompting an acerbic response from GOProud executive director Jimmy LaSalvia. “When the cameras were rolling they were very nice,” LaSalvia said. “Now that the cameras aren’t rolling, rather than walking 20 feet over to us, they fire off a news release. What kind of man can’t walk across the row to deliver a message? I just have a question for them: Who’s the pansy at CPAC? What wusses. Just come over. Don’t play nice if you’re not going to be nice.”

When it first came before the House of Representatives, the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was defeated after House Republicans failed to deliver on their promised votes. At the time, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) and other House Republicans circulated a plan that, instead of authorizing the government to purchase toxic assets, would have it ensure hundreds of billions of dollars in mortgages.

Cantor claimed that the plan “does not leave the American taxpayers with the bag and makes sure that Wall Street pays for this recovery.” However, as economist Robert Waldmann noted then, “I can’t manage to find any reason to doubt that the House Republicans’ plan would destroy the US financial system,” as it actually gave mortgage holders an incentive to push for defaults (since the U.S. would explicitly cover the losses).

As it turns out, former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson didn’t think very much of Cantor’s plan either (or the GOP response to the economic crisis, as a whole), and in his memoir derides Cantor’s “unformed” proposal:

[M]eetings with the Senate GOP were “a complete waste of time for us, when time was more precious than anything,” and Eric Cantor’s suggestion that TARP be replaced with an insurance program was met with outright derision from Paulson. The usually un-snarky Paulson hits the minority whip with particularly hard, ridiculing Cantor’s insurance plan by sarcastically suggesting the administration abandon efforts to prop up the collapsing financial system – just to try out Cantor’s unproven, “unformed” insurance scheme. “I got a better idea. I’m going to go with Eric Cantor’s insurance program,” he writes. “That’s the idea to save the day.”

TARP, for all of its warts and lack of accountability, really did pull the economy back from the edge, and the ultimate losses are going to be far below the headline $700 billion (and in theory will be totally recouped by the Obama administration’s proposed bank tax, which Cantor opposes).

This completes what has been a bad week for Cantor. He has had to answer a slew of questions about his obvious hypocrisy regarding the economic stimulus package, which he voted against, but still trumpets projects from. And he has continued this game, appearing on Greta Van Susteren’s Fox News show last night to claim that “jobs weren’t created” by the stimulus, but he has still appeared at events to tout a high-speed rail line project funded by the stimulus that he says will “create a lot of jobs.” He has cited estimates of 85,000-160,000 jobs created by the project. Watch a compilation:

Cross-posted on The Wonk Room.