Today, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works held a hearing about global warming’s impact on the Chesapeake Bay. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), a proud climate skeptic, loudly objected to the fact that Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) was going to testify, but was quickly put down by the chair of the committee, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA). The Politico’s Ryan Grim reports:
Inhofe, with staff already present, responds that he’ll agree to allow the Maryland senator to stay if Boxer will concede it as a one-time-only deviation.
“Senator, I’m not going to agree to that,” she says. “I’m the chairman of this committee and I’ve spoken to you about this. You knew this was coming. I asked Sen. Mikulski to join us. If that’s not enough, I went back to the parliamentarian. There is absolutely no rule that forbids this.” [...]
Mikulski cuts in. “We need to focus on the issue of global warming and the impact on the bay,” she says, “and not on myself. I yield to the ruling of the chair.”
Inhofe, though, is no longer chair. “Well, the ruling of the chair, if I had a chance to rule,” says Boxer, the chair, “would be that you will be joining us.”
In March, Inhofe threw a similar fit at a global warming hearing, objecting to the testimony of Al Gore. At that time Boxer also shot him down, stating, “Elections have consequences. So I make the rules.”
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