Readers of this blog know that I expect the Climategate scandal to damage the re-election campaigns of anyone that's put too much political stock in environmental issues. Russ Carnahan (D-MO) has significant support from the green jobs lobby and he put $90 million tax dollars into his brother's windfarm. Now comes news that George Soros and other Washington lobbyists will try to paper over problems with wind energy: "After two studies refuted President Barack Obama’s assertions regarding the success of Spain’s and Denmark’s wind energy programs, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request reveals the Department of Energy turned to George Soros and to wind industry lobbyists to attack the studies."

The FOIA generated sunlight has only just begun to illuminate green job corruption. I'm sure someone has already compiled a list of email addresses from Climategate, looked for addresses ending in .gov, and formulated a few FOIA requests of their own. The results, if any, of those requests will continue to break over the coming months.

The Instapundit said he's never seen Dan Riehl this angry; however, Dan's conclusion is relatively tame: "Reconciliation for this disaster of a destructive health care bill I doubt anyone on the Hill can fully define means all out war. The only question remaining is, whose side are you on?" Read the whole thing.

Sestak flap amplifies questions about Obama's political operation:

Rep. Joe Sestak’s admission that the White House tried to lure him out of a primary challenge to Sen. Arlen Specter made Pennsylvania the fifth state this cycle in which the Obama administration has tried unsuccessfully to clear the field for Democratic senate candidates.
...
The big takeaway for most from Sestak’s admission Thursday – he said the White House offered him a high-profile government appointment to move him out of the Pennsylvania Democratic primary – was that it amplified ongoing questions about the potency of the Obama political operation.

Yeah, yeah. The "big takeway" was "ongoing questions about the potency of the Obama political operation." In the part of the country that's outside the beltway, I think the quid pro quo was the "big takeway". It's a tipoff from the political class that nothing's changed.

It's weird one of the strongest and most prevailing thoughts I have coming out of CPAC this year is to thank President Obama........

If you're paying attention to Tea Party or anyone in the conservative movement you know the biggest gripe isn't with the Democrats alone-they are acting just as we would expect them to. Liberal policy dictates they create large social and governmental programs to "help" the masses. However, as Republicans started following suit with more government and a tax and spend mind-set, conservatives started losing it. One of the original nasty deeds was the unfunded, improperly implemented Medicare Part D-Prescription Drug Benefit. Follow that choice then with the auto-bailout and TARP, conservatives have had enough with our own representation. While all government has been growing at a whip-lash inducing rate for far too long, these are recent catalystist which put an already failing system into a fiery tailspin.

It is time to return the Republicans to being the "Grand Ole Party". Republicans have forgotten their roots; I would even go so far as to say that even some Republican voters forgot their roots. We were voting for these guys time after time......one lone voice yelling on the T.V. was our wake up call. We are not "grand" if we are participating in the bankrupting of America.

If not for President Obama pushing for the hard liberal policies of the left, a majority of conservatives may have continued to sit in silence. As these policies have become clear and the Reid/Pelosi tag team have demolished the Constitution, conservatives watched our lawmakers go along for the sake of "looking good". For years we have been subjected to a dearth of leadership within the GOP.........as a result the people are now taking the reins. Once again we realize we are in charge of this country; we are the ones to be reckon with. As shown with the defeat of Dede Scozzafava in New York and the election of Scott Brown in MA-Tea Partiers are vetting candidates, then exerting the pressure to make things happen. We will no longer be silent or allow the GOP to pick who will represent us.

An oft occurring theme during CPAC was Republicans desire to take back the country and bring government and policy back in line with what most of the folks actually want. It is refreshing to hear our representative using these words and throwing out conservative talking points. I just hope they understand they must follow through, otherwise we will come looking for them too. No one is safe from the wrath of conservatives and Tea Partiers who have had enough.

The fact is, I have no problem believing most Conservatives and Republicans would have continued going along to get along, never challenging those who told us they were going to be good for us. While no doubt along the way we will make some mistakes and no single politician will make the choices we want them to at every turn, we will continued to vet, vote out and exert force on those in our party. We will continue to be sure our voices are heard and our wishes are considered.

......so for that I thank you President Obama. You woke up conservatives across the country and gave us the incentive we were looking for to return this country to greatness once again.

Hot Air notes that Obama is borrowing Jimmy Carter's jobs bill:

This bill has the same structural problems as Carter’s, which is that it targets a business decision on which it will have little influence. No business will hire someone and pay them $106,000 to get $6000 back in only one year without additional demand to support the $106,000 salary...

The effect of a tax benefit will be to further subsidize the already successful and to put struggling businesses at a greater disadvantage. If two entities in a market already have a competitive mismatch, the hiring tax credit will aggravate it by allowing the better business to slightly reduce costs while bringing more forces and product to market. That will allow them to lower prices (or not hike them) more readily than their competitors, which would create a government-induced bias that could drown the disadvantaged entity.

In order to have companies that are "Too Big to Fail" you have to foster them along the way.

Instapundit reports Cheney ‘a complete supporter’ of Obama Afghanistan Strategy:

In an exclusive interview this morning on [ABC's] “This Week,” former Vice President Dick Cheney got behind President Barack Obama’s strategy in Afghanistan.

“I’m a complete supporter of what they are doing in Afghanistan. I think the President made the right decision to send troops into Afghanistan,” Cheney said. “I thought it took him a while to get there.”

It's nice to finally see some bipartisanship in Washington, DC, especially since this well-timed Valentine from Cheney to the president will likely tarnish The Won's image with his supporters.

Reuters reports that the IPCC has admitted an error about Dutch sea levels:

The U.N. panel of climate experts overstated how much of the Netherlands is below sea level, according to a preliminary report on Saturday, admitting yet another flaw after a row last month over Himalayan glacier melt.

A background note by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said a 2007 report wrongly stated that 55 percent of the country was below sea level since the figure included areas above sea level, prone to flooding along rivers.

The United Nations has said errors in the 2007 report of about 3,000 pages do not affect the core conclusions that human activities, led by burning fossil fuels, are warming the globe.

Of course, they don't "affect the core conclusions," because those core conclusions are based entirely on confirmation bias.

Gallup reports that Republicans and Democrats are tied on the generic ballot: 45-45. The real news is the chart above which appears at the end of the Gallup post. There's almost a 30 point difference in party enthusiasm.

Glenn Reynolds argues that the Tea Party is America's Third Great Awakening:

And the biggest action item that she presented the crowd with wasn’t to support Sarah Palin, as most politicians would have asked, but to challenge incumbents in primary races. Primary battles aren’t “civil war,” she said. They’re the kind of competition that produces strength in the end.

I think that's right. As for Glenn's argument that the Tea Party is America's Third Great Awakening, only time will tell.

Patrick Tuohey at the Missouri Record has some compelling thoughts on ethics reform:

A better solution would involve a complete deregulation of campaign finance coupled with much stricter reporting requirements. If Jim Nutter or Rex Sinquefield want to write fat checks, that is their right. And partisans, bloggers and special interests should be able to know of it immediately and act accordingly. This better fits the political skepticism that has characterized the American citizen since before we were a country.

Any other approach is reactive, makes compliance an expensive insiders' game and lacks credibility because it tells voters that the legislature can act ethically even if individual legislators cannot.

As for those legislators with a "personal value system," they should step forward and tell us who among them are the bad guys. Anything less makes them complicit in unethical behavior, and proves that this drive toward more and more ethics regulation is political theatre.