EnviroKnow

Jon Huntsman took a swipe at Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann the other day with the tweet heard ’round the world:

Rick Santorum took him up on the offer on Friday, basically telling Huntsman that he is in fact crazy:

“Yeah well, I’ll be the first one to take him up on his offer,” Santorum told MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell. “You know, look, I’ve been very, very clear that the science just simply doesn’t back up the issue of global warming.

“Yes, does the climate change? Of course it does, it’s changed for thousands of years. But the idea that one factor, and man’s contribution to that one factor, of which there are hundreds of factors that have an influence on climate, that that one factor of which man’s contribution is a small part of, is somehow the tip of that tail that wags the whole dog, and that we have to change all of our economic policy based on that, is just a pure overreaction that is not backed up by any kind of real evidence.

“And so I’m glad Jon Huntsman buys that — I don’t, and I don’t think most Americans do anymore.”

Watch the clip here, 3 minutes and 35 seconds in:

Pat Buchanan also got in on the fun, saying, “if he’s running for the Republican nomination, he is crazy.”

Update — Huntsman doubled down in an interview with ABC’s Jake Tapper:

TAPPER: This was a big week for Texas Governor Rick Perry. He went out on the campaign trail and he raised a lot of eyebrows. He made some comments about evolution and he said this about climate change.

PERRY: “I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects. And I think we are seeing almost weekly, or even daily, scientists are coming forward and questioning the original idea that man-made global warming is what is causing the climate to change. I don’t think, from my perspective, that I want America to be engaged in spending that much money on still a scientific theory that has not been proven, and from my perspective, is more and more being put into question.”

TAPPER: These comments from Governor Perry prompted you to Tweet, quote: “To be clear, I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.” Were you just being cheeky or do you think there’s a serious problem with what Governor Perry said?

HUNTSMAN: I think there’s a serious problem. The minute that the Republican Party becomes the party – the anti-science party, we have a huge problem. We lose a whole lot of people who would otherwise allow us to win the election in 2012. When we take a position that isn’t willing to embrace evolution, when we take a position that basically runs counter to what 98 of 100 climate scientists have said, what the National Academy of Science – Sciences has said about what is causing climate change and man’s contribution to it, I think we find ourselves on the wrong side of science, and, therefore, in a losing position.

The Republican Party has to remember that we’re drawing from traditions that go back as far as Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, President Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan and Bush. And we’ve got a lot of traditions to draw upon. But I can’t remember a time in our history where we actually were willing to shun science and become a – a party that – that was antithetical to science. I’m not sure that’s good for our future and it’s not a winning formula.

Update 2 — Doug J at Balloon Juice:

Huntsman’s candidacy comes ten or twenty years too early; I believe that within 10-20 years, we’ll either be a Franco-style theocratic dictatorship headed up by Generalissima Bachmann or, more likely, that electoral set-backs will convince the Republican party to dial things back a bit. In the meantime, Huntsman is pissing in the wind, but I respect him for it, and I can see why moderate Republican commentators let him hang around.

No related posts.