Good, Bad, and Ugly (not necessarily in that order)

Some interesting excerpts from the yesterday's records of "the world's most deliberative body" [all emphases and links added]:

-"Four Pillars of Climate Alarmism" - Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), Chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee: "Madam President, I am returning to the floor, as I have many times in the last few years, to further address what I have considered to be probably the greatest single hoax ever perpetrated on the American people, and that is this thing called global warming. ... [F]or the alarmists, global warming has nothing to do with science or scientific inquiry. Science is not about the inquiry to discover truth, but a mask to achieve an ideological agenda. For some, this issue has become a secular religion, pure and simple."

- "Judicial Independence" - Senator James Jeffords (I-VT): "... I take it very personally when politicians seek to score points by attacking the judiciary. ... The only thing we should be doing is condemning violence directed against the judiciary, not rationalizing it or implicitly encouraging it. ... The first lesson we teach children when they enter competitive sports is to respect the referee, even if we think he might have made the wrong call. If our children can understand this, why can't our political leaders? We shouldn't be throwing rhetorical hand grenades."

- "Bipartisan Agenda for Oregon" - Joint statement by Senators Gordon Smith (R) and Ron Wyden (D). Wyden: "I will say that in an acrimonious time, when there are certainly divisions, let us try to find every possible way to come together. We realize it is not always possible to do it, but what is exciting about America is we debate issues in a vigorous way. Certainly Senator Smith and I do not agree on everything under the Sun, but we certainly agree on a lot of critical matters. Even if we do not, we talk about them in a way that we think is respectful and promotes to our citizens the reality that debate can be thoughtful, it can be contemplative, and it does not always have to be about scorched earth kind of politics."

Alright alright, it was one bad and two goods, but I needed a good title.