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Carly Fiorina has entered the California general election cycle with an ad that attacks Barbara Boxer for taking climate change issues seriously.

Barbara Boxer seems to think that climate change is the real threat to our national security.

Yes, how dare Senator Barbara Boxer pay attention to left-wing, radical, anti-military institutions like the Central Intelligence Agency (which launched “The Center on Climate Change and National Security” last fall chartered to study the national security threats due to climate change impacts) or the Department of Defense (where the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) concluded that “While climate change alone does not cause conflict, it may act as an accelerant of instability or conflict, placing a burden to respond on civilian institutions and militaries around the world.”).

And, her campaign site states that action to mitigate climate change would be “disastrous”.

Besides simply being false and ignoring the reality that inaction is the “disastrous” approach, perhaps it is worth remembering that Carly has spoken strongly in support of Cap & Trade policies as a path toward dealing with climate change. “It will encourage people to find alternatives, which is the most important thing.”

Carly spoke strongly in support of John McCain’s climate change concepts at the 2008 Republican National Convention. Fiorina spoke to Grist arguing that

I think it’s important that when we think about taking on some of the great challenges now as opposed to leaving them to future generations, we have to talk not only about Social Security and medical care, but also about leaving our planet cleaner for the next generation than we found it. So I think that’s the context in which he’s talking about climate change, which I think is related closely to the whole discussion of energy independence.

Now, the Fiorina campaign has stated that these comments were as a surrogate for Republican Presidential candidate Senator McCain and, it would seem, Carly never really believed that climate change represented any form of threat that requires any form of action.

Hmmmm ….

In October 2009, nearly a year after John McCain lost the election, Carly Fiorina highlighted the value of bipartisan action to mitigate climate change during a Fox News appearance:

I was interested … to see an op-ed yesterday in The New York Times co-authored by Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John Kerry of Massachusetts, because they are trying to take a bipartisan approach to the twin issues of climate change and energy independence.

I was delighted to see them call for bipartisanship and delighted, as well, to see them call for a recognition that both achieving energy independence and addressing climate change as equally important goals, and that, if we do it right, we can create opportunity, we can create jobs, and we can create American leadership.

Note that the Fiorina campaign (oops, Carly Fiorina) is now saying that action to mitigate climate change will cost jobs rather than the potential to “create opportunity … create jobs” that she saw just a few months ago.

NOTE: Many call-outs, already, of Carly on her flabbergasting flip-flopping. See, for example, Evan McMorris-Santoro Fiorina Vs. Fiorina: Let’s Talk About The Weather…Or Not

Carly Fiorina is up with a new TV ad in the California Senate race slamming Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) for “talking about the weather” (i.e. calling climate change a national security issue) when she should be talking about something really scary, like global terrorist plots to kill us all. Trouble is, Fiorina has often found herself talking about the “weather,” and even expressing concerns about it while mad bombers were likely plotting our demise on foreign shores.

Andy Kroll, Mother Jones, Carly Fiorina: What Climate Change?

The ad shows a 2007 clip of Boxer, in a tiny video frame (no doubt intentional), saying, “One of the very important national security issues we face, frankly, is climate change.” To which Fiorina, whose image now fills the frame, retorts, “Terrorism kills—and Barbara Boxer is worried about the weather.”

…

back to the “weather” rhetoric. The evidence supporting global climate change is so abundant, so voluminous, that to call it “weather” is appalling. Even Fiorina herself has previously said, “I think there is growing consensus that the issues of climate change and energy independence are inextricably linked,” and that climate change “matters to a lot of people.” Now: “weather.” Talk about a flip-flop.

NOTE: On Fiorina Flip Flopping, see, for example,

Brad Johnson, Think Progress, Senate GOP Candidate Carly Fiorina Flip-Flops On Cap-And-Trade

Matt Corley, Think Progress, Just Like Palin, Fiorina Flip-Flops On Her Support For The Bank Bailout

Kate Sheppard, Mother Jones, Carly Fiorina’s Climate Flip-Flop

It’s fine for Republicans to express concern about climate change—as long as they don’t run for national office, it seems.

This is an important point.

• Resume embellishing Mark Kirk was for action on climate change (voted for the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy & Security (ACES) Act in the House) before he was against it … Kirk Kisses-up to Kooks on Klimate
• Two-year Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) was for action on climate change (voting for MA action in the State legislature) before he was against it … Brown Betrays Best Boston Brains