“Cap and Trade is dead,” this spake Sen Jim Inhofe (R-OK).

Not quite. The Wall Street Journal is concluding, quite prematurely (yet delightfully) that the Hadley CRU scandal is a death blow to global warming.

Yes, the GOP is launching an investigation into the veracity of the Hadley data (and woe be unto the Democrats for not launching one of their own). Yes, the evidence is coming back from all accounts that these books were cooked. Yes, the global warming world is either (a) blaming everyone and everything for the errors but the authors of the cooked data, (b) being remarkably silent, or (c) concluding that the results look really really bad for them.

But hold on a moment. The data are not at all a death blow. Not yet. Researchers are still poring through the information and finding all sorts of wormy meal there, but hasn’t all this been discussed before? The Hadley incident merely confirms what so many scientists have gradually been suspecting. This information is far from being the stake in the heart that the Cap and Trade or Copenhagen vampires would need.

However, its timing could not be more perfect. Just as Americans tipped the balance in skepticism, just as Copenhagen was starting to gnaw at its knots over the American recalcitrance, and just as Cap and Trade was stalling in the Senate… pow: confirmation of what most of us were already suspecting. And this could promote a slowly growing media frenzy of ACORN-like proportions. The Czar notes that a lot of liberal rags were quicker to pick up the story this time, albeit with different degrees of of depth; they may be holding back on saying what we all think, but at least they are acknowledging the event this time.

Even so, the Czar suspects that if he hooked the arm of any passerby and said, “Do you think the government needs to get involved to save the world from global warming?” the vast majority would nod their heads excitedly; if he were to ask “Are you aware that the original authors of the global warming crisis were exposed as frauds who attempted to hide and destroy data rather than admit their theory was badly flawed?” even more would express shock and surprise.

Until the majority of Americans hear what is happening at a level they understand—and there is no shortage of people who have written excellent summaries that can provide just that—we are a long way from turning our backs on Cap and Trade.

And with respect, Senator Inhofe, Copenhagen is the bigger devil by far.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.