White House emissions clog atmosphere

Apart from the immediate hilarity of it, I'm not quite sure what to make of this headline:

White House issues rare letter defending record on warming

And, no, the "rare letter" does not defend their egregious record of meddling with government scientists who speak publicly about global warming. It does not seem to be defending Bush's statement that the "jury is still out" on global warming. It appears not to defend their opposition to the appointment -- at the behest of ExxonMobil -- of preeminent climate scientist, Dr. Robert Watson, as chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. They do not try defend any of that.

Apparently employing the erstwhile "we've never been stay the course" rhetorical strategy, here is what the "rare letter" does defend:

In fact, climate change has been a top priority since the president's first year in office.

"Beginning in June 2001, President Bush has consistently acknowledged climate change is occurring and humans are contributing to the problem.

I love the "In fact" part. Factuality here would be helped a great deal with addition of one simple word:

In fact, denying climate change has been a top priority since the president's first year in office.

Now, it maybe be that, as the letter claims, Bush did "in fact" mention or acknowledge global warming in 2001 and 2002. This was a time before Exxon got their gloms on him because the letter cites only -- probably the only -- speeches prior to the Exxon-led Watson ouster from the IPCC. And who can forget the "jury is still out" remark? Nobody, really.

As I said, the headline is puzzling. It is surely not rare at all that the White House does or says things and then turns around and says they never did or said those things. Shit, they do that all time. I guess the rarity comes from it being the first time they've ever done so regarding climate change.