Ah. It's clear that Roy Spencer's sole role before the committee is to establish that "Clinton did it too."

Also, he's whining that Hansen was allowed to say whatever he wanted and he had to keep his skepticism to himself. When the stories broke he said he was happy they were finally asking Hansen to obey the rules.

Also, he's making the (by now familiar) claim that any skeptical scientist is bullied.

Oh, look, now he's citing Roger Pielke Jr.'s testimony! That established that everyone mixes science and politics, so why should we pick on the Bush administration? I'm sure Roger will take to the ramparts to clear up this misunderstanding of his testimony, which nobody ever, ever could have predicted.

I know I'm biased, but Spencer strikes me as a complete weasel -- his eyes dart around, he can't keep his hands still, he smiles inappropriately.

They should be nailing him on this long-debunked skeptical crap. Instead, Waxman's drifting off into the intelligent design stuff. C'mon. But wow, Spencer's taking the bait! He's openly defending intelligent design. What a clown show this all is.

For the record, let me reiterate one more time: Darryl Issa is a tool.

And also: at this point, what does any of this have to do with government interference in research?