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GOP Memo: Goal For Climate Debate Is ‘Making Political Points’

At 11 PM last night, following the eight-hour marathon reading on the Senate floor of the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act forced by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) revealed the existence of a GOP strategy memo on the climate debate.

The anonymous memo, provided to Reid “by a lobbyist involved in Republican strategy meetings” and obtained by the subscription-only E&E News, admits that the only goal of the Republican caucus is obstruction and grandstanding:

The goal is for a theme (e.g. climate bill – higher gas prices) each day, and the focus is much more on making political points than in amending the bill, changing the baseline text for any future debate, or affecting policy.

The full memo explains the GOP strategy to obstruct and delay action:

GOP Climate Memo

As Senator Reid said in response:

Mr. President, you could not make anything up more cynical. This is the truth and they say truth is stranger than fiction, and this certainly is.

Watch it:

[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2008/06/reidmemoclimate.320.240.flv]

Download the memo here.

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