Progress Illinois

Last night, we highlighted Rep. John Shimkus' hyperbolic fear -- expressed during a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing -- that cap-and-trade legislation "is the largest assault on democracy and freedom in this country that I’ve ever experienced." Brad Johnson over at Think Progress captured the video. Check it out:

Sadly, Shimkus' antics are par for the course for Republican congresspeople these days. As Grist's Kate Sheppard wrote this week, Republican representatives and their witnesses have been bogging down climate proceedings with "skeptical rants and cockamamie theories." Take Lord Christopher Monckton, who prompted Shimkus' plant food rant on March 25th. A favorite of climate-skeptics, Monckton was trained as a journalist, advised Margaret Thatcher, and developed the high-selling Eternity puzzle, yet has no background in climate science. “This was a serious hearing on a serious issue,” an aide to the Energy and Commerce Committee told Sheppard. “We gave the other side advance notice on the kinds of witnesses [Democratic leaders] were choosing. They chose to invite Monckton. ... If this is the witness that they want to choose, even though he’s contradicted by U.S. government scientists, then we’re going to move forward.”