QUESTION ABOUT CLIMATE-GATE

Question: Will "climategate" ultimately have the same impact on true believers that Krushchev's revelations about Stalin in 1956? Or will most react to it as fellow travellers did to the Show Trials in the late 1930s? That is, with denial. My own experience as an observer of BC politics is not a happy one. I grew up in a family that believed that the political left, the CCF-NDP, not only represented the better policies, but had a monopoly on integrity, honesty and fair play. The other side was not only wrong, but greedy and corrupt. No one on the right could possibly be someone who just had an honest difference in perspective.

Along came former NDP finance minister Dave Stupich, the very image of rectitude in his impeccable three piece suit and gentile manner. Party supporters simply could not accept that a man like him in a party like theirs could possibly be guilty of such shocking corruption and grand theft. But thanks to the courage of one whistle-blower, the whole truth eventually came out. Stupich siphoned off charity bingo money into his own coffers. Hence, "Bingogate". For his efforts, the whistle-blower was initially accused of falsehood, treachery and disloyality. But even when he was fully vindicated, fellow party members never forgave him, and their ostracism drove him out. Call it the thin red line. Moral of the story--- true believers will hang in to the bitter end, and when the ugly truth comes out, they will blame the messenger not the instigator. Jimmy Swaggart is still in business, isn't he?

The fudging, falsification and misrepresentation at the Climate Research Unit should ring some bells. In my mind it does not necessarily discredit AGW theory, but it does discredit many of those who have advocated it. Must truth be defended with a bodyguard of lies? What kind of truth is that, then?