After a closed door policy meeting with other Senate Democrats, Majority Leader and utter buffoon Hary Reid of Nevada took to the microphones just outside the floor of the United States Senate, and fielded questions. 

In response to a question on the energy bill, Reid said the following:

As you know, one reason that we have the fires burning in Southern California is global warming. One reason the Colorado Basin is going dry is because of global warming.

Six questions later, a reporter followed up on Reid's amazing statement.

Question: Senator, on the California fires, you said that the reason the fires are burning in California is global warming?

Reid: No. Here's what I - I didn't say the reason the fires were burning in Southern California was global warming...

First, Reid is an idiot because tried to use global warming as a prop in a current news story in order to advance his energy bill agenda.  When called on it, he denied he said it.  It's on tape.  You can listen to it here.

Second, he has no idea what he's talking about.  Southern California is a desert.  The Santa Ana winds are as normal this time of year as any other local weather phenomenon.  In fact, some of the weathermen in the area had speculated on television newscasts in recent weeks that we usually get Santa Anas before now.  And in the scope of the severity of the winds, this batch isn't even as bad as we've had.  This is a very average wind pattern for us. 

Reid may have wanted to blame the fires on global warming before he got called on it and ran away, but I'd be hard pressed to be persuaded that global warming caused arsonists to start several of these fires, or that global warming knocked down a power line in Malibu starting that fire, or that global warming caused a couple of construction workers to work with an arc welder in high winds, showering the local brush with sparks.  

So now that Reid has publicly raised the global warming specter...that is, before he lowered it again in classic John Kerry fashion, it makes you wonder what's worse for Harry Reid's environment? Letting the fires burn, or polluting the ozone with all the hydrocarbons that come out of the exhaust of the DC-10's and helicopters that are frantically dropping water and fire retardant on the hot spots? Should Reid be calling for the removal of the firefighting from the air in order to minimize the footprint the fires are already putting in the air and remain consistent with his radical environmentalism?

Reid is a witless opportunist.  Half a million people are evacuated, at least 1,200 homes have been lost so far, federal, state, county and local resources are performing acts of heroism all over California to save lives and property, and Harry Reid wants to blame it on global warming to score political points for his energy bill?  What a creep.