This ‘graph on the WSJ blog just about made me choke:

Of course, the obsession over what do to with developing countries — especially China — is one of President Bush’s biggest environmental legacies, Secretary Paulson said, continuing the administration’s week-long farewell tour. By relentlessly focusing on the role of developing-world emissions, President Bush "changed the debate," Sec. Paulson said.

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Stories like this don’t tell themselves.

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Two points. First, the strategy of delaying U.S. action on climate change by recourse to fear-mongering about China and India is not a Bush invention. Conservatives (and, er, Democrats) have been pulling that crap since the ’90s. That was the basis for the Senate rejecting Kyoto via the Byrd-Hagel Resolution.

Second, it is true that Bush has kept this delaying tactic at the center of the national debate. What is truly mystifying is why a Bush administration official who purports to be concerned about climate change would boast about it.

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