Rick "climate scientists are a secular cult" Perry used to love Al Gore like he now loves prayer days. The terrifyingly anti-science Texas governor, presidential candidate, and coiffure model was the Texas campaign chairman for Al Gore's presidential run in 1988.
Perry claims that was before Gore got all big into global warming, and that could definitely get him off the hook, if it were true. But it's not. Combating the greenhouse effect was one of Gore's campaign priorities in his '88 campaign. It was part of his stump speech, and he partnered with Republican Sen. John Chaffee (R.I.) to call for urgent action on climate change. An Environmental Defense Fund lawyer said at the time that Gore probably "goes to bed at night worrying about … global warming."
But back then, the greenhouse effect (and its contribution to a warming climate) was a well-established and strongly supported scientific principle. Now it's a well-established and strongly supported scientific principle that is also used as a political football. Which means it's important for Perry — who was a Democrat at the time, not that it mattered because back then even Republicans apparently cared about life on Earth — to retcon a reason why he boosted Gore's campaign. He appears to be vacillating between "Gore hadn't invented global warming yet" and "oh, I knew all about it, I just silently disapproved."
Update: According to this guy, Perry wasn't Gore's campaign chairman at all. He just allowed the chairman to call him the chairman, and didn't correct him or anyone else, and still doesn't. Oh Rick, you are a mystery wrapped in an enigma.
