The Chimera of Political Integrity

Here at the Microdot Center for The Identification and the Preservation of Mythological Beasts, we were extremely excited by the alleged discovery and documentation of a hitherto unidentified specie of mythological beast, The Chimerae Republicanus Huntsmanii variety: politicus vertitatis. The existence of this beast had been rumored for  some time and we began an expedition to uncover any evidence or trace of it in it's natural habitat.
Imagine our excitement as we discovered this actual trace, a real electronic footprint, an alleged veritable twitter of the beast, so to speak:

But unfortunately, our hopes were dashed as the alleged beast, caught in the glare of the glimmer of it's own fantastic ego, reflected off of the piles of cash that lured it into the open, revealed the disappointing truth. It was just plain old Jon Huntsman who was speaking at an oil money sponsored event yesterday at the Heritage Foundation. When asked by a blogger, Lachlan Markey if humans contribute to climate change the erstwhile chimera, Huntsman replied: “scientific community owes us more. I don’t know, I’m not a scientist, nor am I a physicist, but I would defer to science . . . The scientific community owes us more in terms of a better description of explanation about what might lie beneath all of this. But there’s not information right now to formulate policies in terms of addressing it over all, primarily because it’s a global issue."
He then went on to claim that his new indecision on the matter was raised by "questions" raised "by a University over in Scotland". It is not clear what university "over in Scotland" Huntsman meant. The universities and colleges of Scotland have all signed the Universities and Colleges Climate Commitment of Scotland which states:

"We recognise the scale and speed of climate change, and the likely effect on Scotland’s people and places, impacting adversely on our economy, society and environment. . . . We acknowledge the Scottish Government objective – to reduce emissions by 80% by 2050 – to avert the worst impacts of climate change; and realise we have a role to play in this."

The signatories include all 15 universities in Scotland, plus 43 colleges: Aberdeen College, Adam Smith College, Angus College, Anniesland College, Ayr College, Banff & Buchan College, Barony College, Borders College, Cardonald College, Carnegie College, Central College, Clydebank College, Cumbernauld College, Dumfries & Galloway College, Dundee College, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh’s Telford College, Elmwood College, Forth Valley College, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow Coatridge College, Glasgow College of Nautical Studies, Glasgow School of Art, Heriot Watt University, James Watt College, Jewel & Esk College, John Wheatley College, Langside College, Lews Castle College, Moray College, Motherwell College, Newbattle Abbey College, North Highland College, Oatridge College, Perth College, Queen Margaret University, Reid Kerr College, Robert Gordon University, Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama, Sabhal Mor Ostaig, Scottish Agricultural College, Shetland College, South Lanarkshire College, Stevenson College, Stow College, The Open University in Scotland, University of the Highlands and Islands, University of Aberdeen, University of Abertay, University of Dundee, University of Edinburgh, University of Glasgow, University of St Andrews, University of Stirling, University of Strathclyde, the University of the West of Scotland, and West Lothian College.

Some representative statements from Scotland’s top universities, in case it isn’t clear that Huntsman’s “university in Scotland” doesn’t exist:

– University of St. Andrews: “Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing the world today.”

– University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Napier University and Heriot-Watt University: “The twin challenges of energy security and environmental sustainability presents the global community with little choice but to develop a low carbon future – less reliant on fossil fuels.”

– University of Glasgow: “The threat of climate change to ecological systems is clearly accepted.”

Perhaps Huntsman is referring the the University of East Anglia in eastern England, whose servers were hacked and scientists smeared by climate deniers in 2009. After Rick Perry cited the Climategate conspiracy theory to question global warming in August, Huntsman eviscerated Perry. When Republicans question man-made global warming, “I think we find ourselves on the wrong side of science, and, therefore, in a losing position,” Huntsman said on ABC’s This Week in August. It appears Huntsman now prefers this “losing position” in exchange for his potentially lucrative speaking career and post loser presidential bid media life...I guess it's only a matter of time before he backtracks on his position on evolution. You can't just pander once and get away with it, you know.

Now back to the hunt...does anyone have any information of the legendary rainbow unicorn...The Bachmannacorn Multicolorus? Or the legendary Newtasaur? Or the magic shape shifting Mittriceritops...very hard to find any real evidence as the little bastard keeps changing positions as soon as we think we have a fix on him.....