“Michele Bachmann is the candidate who doesn’t just give lip service to conservative principles but actively lives them out every day,” Bright said in a statement. “She is the conservative who has been consistent in her record and her rhetoric.”

Bright introduced his bill to study the creation of a new South Carolina currency earlier this session. The resolution argues that the right to print currency can flow from the state’s constitutional police powers.

Source: Sen. Lee Bright’s Facebook page.

“[M]any widely recognized experts predict the inevitable destruction of the Federal Reserve System’s currency through hyperinflation in the foreseeable future,” the resolution reads. ”[I]n the event of hyperinflation, depression, or other economic calamity related to the breakdown of the Federal Reserve System, for which the state is not prepared, the state’s governmental finances and private economy will be thrown into chaos, with gravely detrimental effects upon the lives, health, and property of South Carolina’s citizens, and with consequences fatal to the preservation of good order throughout the state.”

If passed, the legislation would appoint a subcommittee to come up with a plan for an alternative currency.

“South Carolina can avoid or at least mitigate many of the economic, social, and political shocks to be expected to arise from hyperinflation, depression, or other economic calamity related to the breakdown of the Federal Reserve System only through the timely adoption of an alternative sound currency that the state’s government and citizens may employ without delay in the event of the destruction of the Federal Reserve System’s currency,” according to the resolution.

It was last year that Bright played a major role in helping to pass a non-binding, but contentious, affirmation of South Carolina’s sovereignty under the U.S. Constitution to Congress.

“If at first you don’t secede, try again,” Bright joked to the Spartanburg Herald-Journal after the bill’s passage. ”I think all of our rights are under assault, but assault on the 9th and 10th amendments is the most egregious.”

Though he doesn’t specifically mention cap-and-trade or climate science, he said he would work to overturn President Obama’s “job-killing policies” and ensure there is oversight for “every program.”

In the letter, which makes Upton’s candidacy for the committee chairmanship official, Upton tells his fellow Republicans that he:

WILL work with all the members of our Conference as one team;
WILL pass legislation to repeal ObamaCare;
WILL conduct rigorous oversight of every program, budget, regulation and agency
within our jurisdiction;
WILL aggressively cut spending by adopting new Committee rules to foster spending
cuts and eliminate government programs; and
WILL protect the sanctity of human life by rigorous oversight and passing legislation
to permanently ensure that no federal funds go toward abortion, including:  Rep. Joe
Pitts’ Protect Life Act and Rep. Chris Smith’s No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act.

But the letter does not lay out an energy agenda, nor does it address climate change. The letter is the latest effort by Upton to talk up his conservative credentials, amid criticism by some Republicans that he’s too moderate. In fact, some conservatives have even criticized Upton for his support for phasing out incandescent light bulbs in favor of more efficient ones.

But there was some good news for Upton today. Fred Barnes, executive editor of The Weekly Standard, voiced his support for Upton in a story this afternoon. “I know Upton quite well. He’s not as conservative as I am,” he wrote. “But he is especially well suited to be chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee. On the issues the committee will take up, he is conservative. Republicans shouldn’t let a silly light bulb bill keep him from becoming chairman.”

Reps. Joe Barton (R-Texas), John Shimkus (R-Ill.) and Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) are also hoping to get the chairmanship.

Here are some of his most memorable comments on the issue:

• “If we decrease the use of carbon dioxide are we not taking away plant food from the atmosphere?” he said at a 2009 hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s energy and environment subcommittee. “We could be doing just the opposite of what the people who want to save the world are saying.”
• At the same hearing, Shimkus said: “I want to start with Genesis:8, verse 21 and 22, ‘Never again will I curse the ground because of man even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood and never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done. As long as the earth endures, sea, time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.’ I believe that’s the infallible word of God and that’s the way it’s going to be for his creation.”
• He continued: “The second verse comes from Matthew:24. ‘And he will send his angel’s with a loud trumpet call and they will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of the heavens to the other.’ The earth will end only when God declares it’s time to be over. Man will not destroy this earth. This earth will not be destroyed by a flood.”
• “Today we have 388 parts per million in the atmosphere,” he went on. “I believe in the days of the dinosaurs, where we had the most flora and fauna, we were probably at 4,000 parts per million. There is a theological debate that this a carbon-starved planet, not too much carbon.”
• During another 2009 subcommittee hearing, Shimkus said, “When we breath in, we breath oxygen. When we breath out, we breath out carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is not a toxic emittent.”
• “I believe that the climate continually changes throughout the millions of years that the planet has been here on earth and will continue to change. I don’t think we can control the emissions from China and India, nor do I think they have any desire to control them,” he told Think Progress in 2009.

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), the current ranking Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee and another candidate for the chairmanship, has similarly contrarian views on climate change. And Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), generally regarded as more of a moderate on environmental issues, has been touting his own opposition to greenhouse gas regulations in an effort to become chairman.

He opened his statement at a congressional hearing yesterday as follows: “Today’s hearing is about adaptation. Adapting is a common natural way for people to adapt to their environment.”

Can’t argue with that. More questionable is his assessment of global warming in the same hearing:

“I think that it’s inevitable that humanity will adapt to global warming. I also believe the longer we postpone finding ways to do it successfully, the more expensive and unpalatable the adjustment will become. Adaptation to shifts in temperature is not that difficult. What will be difficult is the adaptation to rampant unemployment — enormous, spontaneous and avoidable changes to our economy — if we adopt such a reckless policy as cap-and-tax or cap-and-trade.”

If that seems dubious to you, here’s his solid evidence that adaptation has worked in the past: “During the Little Ice Age, both the Vikings and the British adapted to the cold by changing. I suppose that one possible adaptation response of Viking retrenchment and British expansion is that we’re conducting the hearing today in English instead of Norwegian.”

Irrefutable logic. Remember, this guy used to be chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee. The future of our planet was basically in his hands.

But I can’t do him justice. Watch the full clip below:

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We’re speechless. Please follow TWI on Twitter here.

Mike Duncan – 48
Michael Steele – 48
Katon Dawson – 29
Saul Anuzis – 24
Ken Blackwell – 19

Duncan and Blackwell drop, Dawson and Anuzis gain, everyone else holds. Of course, Duncan’s drop was the biggest, but the worry for his people was that they could drop below 40 as Steele rose above 50. That won’t happen until someone drops out.

Some spin I was hearing just now, that Duncan might drop out and endorse the Steele, seems … well, no longer correct. The general consensus is that Anuzis is faltering (“the truck’s run over him”) and Blackwell is trying to make deals to stay in. The strength of Dawson worries some people.

“Can you imagine the narrative if it’s Dawson versus Steele?” asks Patrick Ruffini, the GOP web guru behind RebuildtheParty.com.

“It’s funny that this is Superbowl weekend, you know,” Jones said. “Ken Blackwell has a 13-3 record of winning elections. Leadership matters. Nobody thought the Cardinals could make it to the Superbowl, and then they picked Kurt Warner.”

Former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele’s nominating team call him a “quality man” and a “natural leader” who understands the media.

“He’s prepared to be on the Chris Wallace Show this Sunday,” says a Florida Republican. “He’s ready to take on Bob Beckel.”

Unless, of course, he wants voters to think George W. Bush is still president.

Al Franken’s outrageous attempt to seat himself in the U.S. Senate without an election certificate is an insult to Minnesotans and all those who believe in the rule of law.  While Franken has unfairly been the beneficiary of double-counted votes, ‘missing’ ballots, and inconsistent standards regarding absentee ballots, he’s clearly concerned he will lose his artificial lead as this process moves forward.

I’m less shocked than I should be at a party chairman lying about the facts of an election — if Duncan stops spinning for his party, he’ll definitely (instead of almost definitely) get Anuzis’d or Steele’d or Dawson’d when the RNC chooses a new leader. I’m more surprised to see a political party’s leader accusing Minnesota election officials of fraud and more or less accusing a likely senator (trading at 95/100 on Intrade) of election theft.

Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe also engaged in similar behavior during his tenure at the top of the DNC, telling Democrats that Al Gore had won the presidency in 2000. But how’d that work out for his party?

Ask President John Kerry and Speaker of the House Dick Gephardt.

GOP tech guru Patrick Ruffini tried to enter right after giving a presentation on his organization, Rebuild the Party. He tweeted:

Entered RNC meeting then they closed the room to nonmembers. Entering again so on supposedly

Then:

Wow… No quorum and they’re closing the forum to nonmembers = FAIL

Conservative blogger Adam Schmidt:

After losing an election to a candidate running on a platform of transparency the RNC needs to open up the process not bar press

Conservative blogger Jason Tolbert:

Where that welcome mat go?

RNC member Tom Wilson tweeted to cryptically explain that they “opted not to” make the forum public. Saul Anuzis, a candidate for RNC chairman and the party’s tweeter-in-chief, electronically reported on the meeting anyway. Doesn’t seem like the hoi polloi missed much.