Speaking of giving things a bad name, check out Senate Environment Committee Chair Barbara Boxer’s hyperbole in the Democratic radio address on Saturday:

“The fact is that the overwhelming majority of scientists say that the earth is in peril if we don’t act now. They’ve [remember, “they” are “the overwhelming majority of scientists”] told us clearly that more than 40 percent of God’s creatures could face extinction if we don’t act now. They’ve [again, that’s “the overwhelming majority of scientists”] told us of more intense weather events if we don’t act now.”

Actually, the number of scientists on record in support of the alarmist case is a fraction of those who have gone on record, however one divines relevant opinion.

She continued: “And military leaders have told us that unchecked global warming will lead to severe conflict and war as droughts, floods and rising sea levels create huge numbers of desperate refugees.” Military leaders . . . saying this will happen. This presumably refers to Hugo Chávez, who teamed with several of his ilk to champion Kyoto as a social-justice measure to remedy the North-South wealth disparity. Now, really.

In Sunday’s Washington Post, Ms. Boxer says, “Time is our enemy, and every expert has told us we face dangerous consequences from unchecked global warming if we do not address this problem now.” Part of this is true, at least: the longer the “we must act now!” crowd has to deal with dropping temperatures and hurricane seasons that aren’t the promised replication of 2005, the lower their chances of success. But what does it say about a measure whose chief proponent is thus reduced to uttering the unsupportable in the name of inducing legislative panic?