When I was told I'd be on the Fox News Channel's "Fox & Friends" debating Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. about the contentious issue of oil consumption and Barack Obama's refusal to consider offshore drilling or nuclear energy, I really looked forward to the exchange. After all, how many times does one have a chance to have a frank and open exchange with one of the true high priests of the shrill global warming crowd?
Meeting him in the Fox News Channel's green room before the appearance, I began to have some concerns. I'm the kind of guy who likes to have a little friendly banter, even with someone I disagree with. Mr. Kennedy pretty clearly does not, at least not with me. I asked him how his uncle Ted was doing, joked about us being invited to be on the "early morning" shift that day (our appearance aired at 6:15am), and did everything I could to try and establish that, contrary to the way many liberals believe, a conservative like me doesn't have any horns or fangs.
He wasn't buying it.
To describe Mr. Kennedy as aloof might be the understatement of the century. The Kennedy family might be a lot of things, but for RFK, Jr., "warm and fuzzy" doesn't exactly come to mind.
And the ice didn't thaw much once we got out onto the set and began the segment. The host directed the first question to him and he launched into a fairly lengthy monologue that reflected his many years of leading the "let's go green" brigade.
When he got to the part about how the United States should be more like countries like Iceland and Costa Rica in terms of energy conservation, I couldn't take it any more. As I finally got to speak my mind about the scare tactics of Kennedy's disciples on the loony left -- those who bellow about carbon footprints, a "planet in peril", the evil Republicans like me who believe in drilling in just about every square inch of our country so that we don't have to pay 10 dollars a gallon some day -- the look of rage on Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s face was priceless.
If I thought he didn't like me much in the greenroom, he positively loathed me out there in that TV studio.
Click here to see the segment. I think you'll enjoy it.
And I realized that this is a man who is probably rarely, if ever, challenged in public or private. The global warming hysterics don't just offer opinions and beliefs about greenhouse gases and the like. These are people who speak as if they belong to a cult.
Yet many of them are hopelessly hypocritical.
As angry as Kennedy was with me, I decided not to remind him of his well-publicized opposition to wind-powered turbines near the Kennedy compound at Cape Cod, Massachusetts because it would spoil the view.
I really thought he might become unhinged.
This week on my radio show, I interviewed Drew Johnson of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research. It seems Mr. Johnson and his organization decided to do a little digging into the emperor of the global warming crowd, Tennessee's own Al Gore.
The leftist world has thrown countless rose petals at the feet of the failed presidential candidate over his relentless and aggravating campaign to scare everyone into thinking the planet is about to explode any day now into a big ball of fire because of our SUV's and double-plied toilet paper.
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