Is it hot in here?

(Picked up from the NY Times via Wonkette.)

Ever wonder whose research informs Bush's climate change policies? Fred Barnes’ puff-portrait of President, Rebel in Chief, fills us in.

Fred Barnes recalls a visit to the White House last year by [science fiction novelist] Michael Crichton, whose 2004 best selling novel, "State of Fear," suggests that global warming is an unproven theory and an overstated threat.

Mr. Barnes, who describes Mr. Bush as "a dissenter on the theory of global warming," writes that the president "avidly read" the novel and met the author after Karl Rove, his chief political adviser, arranged it. He says Mr. Bush and his guest "talked for an hour and were in near-total agreement."

Farewell, icecaps.

-Adrian Bleifuss Prados