When U.S. Senators Jay Rockefeller and Olympia Snowe wrote an outrageous letter to Exxon-Mobil making veiled threats about what would happen if the company didn't stop giving money to scientists who won't recite the global warming mantra, there were a few spikes of outrage, not nearly enough.

When Heidi Cullen, who runs a global warming kool-aid stand for the Weather Channel (which used to report the weather without political lectures), suggested that weather people who don't toe the line should be denied American Meteorological Society accreditation, there was a brief talk radio and web discussion, which seems only to have increased Ms. Cullen's name recognition.  Now she gets on Larry King, along with even greater scientific authorities like U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer.

The most recent target of the Al Gore Brigade is one George Taylor.  Taylor is the "State Climatologist" of Oregon, a title created by Oregon State University (OSU) and not the state, although the state legislature created the state climate office at the school.

Based on reporting by Vince Patton of KGW television news, Taylor simply says, "Most of the climate changes we have seen up until now have been a result of natural variations."  He thus does not subscribe to the notion that human activities are the primary source of global climate change.

Taylor holds a B.A. in Mathematics from U.C. Santa Barbara and an M.S. in Meteorology from the University of Utah.  He's been at OSU since 1989.  He's responsible for weather and climate data archives for the state.  He's published over 200 reports, books and journal articles, almost all of which have the word "climate" in their titles.

In short, George Taylor would certainly seem like a qualified, well-credentialed climatologist who's been at it a while.

Now, Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski wants to strip Taylor of his "state climatologist" title and appoint his own.  The governor, who worked as a truck driver, bricklayer and lawyer before entering politics in the 1970s, told KGW that the state needs a consistent message on reducing greenhouse gases to combat climate change.  "I just think there has to be somebody that says, 'this is the state position on this,'" the governor is quoted as saying.

Would that be a political position or a scientific position?  On global warming, is there currently any difference?