Fred Thompson's Political Climate Change

Sometimes, reading a reputable news outlet is likely to plunge you over the edge of an abyss into the world of "Alice in Wonderland." Suddenly, you're apt to be sitting at the Mad Hatter's tea party — except that the words are coming from widely esteemed leaders.

I had that kind of experience the other day. It made me wonder if the editors of The Onion had somehow managed to hijack the Web site of The New York Times.

Innocently, while reading the Times home page, I followed a link to a chart headlined "The Presidential Candidates on Climate Change." There, neatly arranged, were the positions of the major contenders for the White House.

One of the candidates, former Sen. Fred Thompson, was conspicuous because of the unusual entry under the heading "If Elected, They Say They Would … "

Unlike the other presidential hopefuls on the chart, who had provided some indication of what they would or wouldn't do about global warming, Thompson evidently figured there was nothing to say about the issue. Alone among the contenders, his position was noted this way: "No Stated Position on What He Would Do."

But the really bizarre part came under the heading "Stance on Global Warming and America's Role." There, the Times reported that Thompson "says there is no scientific consensus." And the newspaper went on to quote a statement that the actor-politician made while appearing on the "Paul Harvey Show" on April 13, 2007:

"Some people think that our planet is suffering from a fever," Thompson said. "Now scientists are telling us that Mars is experiencing its own planetary warming: Martian warming. It seems scientists have noticed recently that quite a few planets in our solar system seem to be heating up a bit, including Pluto. NASA says that the Martian South Pole's ice cap has been shrinking for three summers in a row.

Maybe Mars got its fever from Earth. If so, I guess Jupiter's caught the same cold because it's warming up, too, like Pluto."

Thompson went on: "This has led some people, not necessarily scientists, to wonder if Mars and Jupiter, non-signatories to the Kyoto Treaty, are actually inhabited by alien SUV-driving industrialists who run their air-conditioning at 60 degrees and refuse to recycle. Silly, I know, but I wonder what all those planets, dwarf planets and moons in our solar system have in common. Hmmmm. Solar system. Hmmmm. Solar? I wonder. Nah, I guess we shouldn't even be talking about this. The science is absolutely decided. There's a consensus. Ask Galileo."

I checked and rechecked. No, I had not landed on The Onion's site. I was safely ensconced within the reliable pixels of The New York Times. And I had just read comments from a leading candidate for the presidency of the United States.

By the end of this summer, without even declaring his candidacy, Thompson had catapulted himself to the front ranks of the Republican presidential field. Numerous journalists and commentators explained that he was a serious contender because he was "Reaganesque." At the time, the adjective seemed to apply mostly because both men were actors. But it now appears that they have something else, even more important, in common — cheery contempt for inconvenient truths.

Like the TV shows and movies that are clearly patterned after previous TV shows and movies, the Thompson campaign for the White House is yet another indication that the corporate hunger for sequels is still ravenous. So we now have the full-blown spectacle of Fred Thompson on the presidential campaign-trail while the news media tout him as a political figure of historic proportions.

I liked him better on "Law & Order."

Norman Solomon's latest book, "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death," is now available in paperback. To find out more about Norman Solomon and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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