Cuccinelli Targets UVA Papers in Climategate Salvo

Candidly, it's a bit frightening that Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccineli is on the lose and not under the supervision of mental health professionals. As if Kookinelli hasn't engaged in enough wacko behavior since taking office a little over a mere three months ago, now he is targeting the University of Virginia - historically NOT a wise move in Virginia due to the influence of UVA alumni - seeking to recover close to $500,000 in state grants used for climate change research. The sad reality is that Kookinelli is a ultra-far right loon who shares the alternate universe of the teabaggers, climate change deniers and birthers - and perhaps the closeted self-loathing of Ted Haggard if stories I heard on Saturday evening prove true. Some of us tried to warn Virginia voters as to the true level of insanity of Cuccinelli, but unfortunately no one seemed to listen. The Hook, a Charlottesville publication has the latest on Kookinelli's latest insanity. Here are some highlights:
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No one can accuse Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli of shying from controversy. In his first four months in office, Cuccinelli directed public universities to remove sexual orientation from their anti-discrimination policies, attacked the Environmental Protection Agency, and filed a lawsuit challenging federal health care reform. Now, it appears, he may be preparing a legal assault on an embattled proponent of global warming theory who used to teach at the University of Virginia, Michael Mann.
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In papers sent to UVA April 23, Cuccinelli’s office commands the university to produce a sweeping swath of documents relating to Mann’s receipt of nearly half a million dollars in state grant-funded climate research conducted while Mann— now director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State— was at UVA between 1999 and 2005.
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UVA spokesperson Carol Wood says the school will fulfill its legal obligation, noting that the scope of the documents requested mean it could take some time. Mann had not returned a reporter’s calls at posting time, but Mann— whose research remains under investigation at Penn State— recently defended his work in a front page story in USA Today saying while there could be “minor” errors in his work there’s nothing that would amount to fraud or change his ultimate conclusions that the earth is warming as a result of human activities, particularly the burning of fossil fuels.
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“Mike is an outstanding and extremely reputable climate scientist,” says UVA climate faculty member Howie Epstein. “And I don’t really know what they’re looking for or expecting to find.”
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One former UVA climate scientist now working with Michaels worries about politicizing— or, in his words, creating a “witch hunt”— what he believes should be an academic debate. “I didn’t like it when the politicians came after Pat Michaels,” says Chip Knappenberger. “I don’t like it that the politicians are coming after Mike Mann.”
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Making his comments via an online posting under an earlier version of this story, Knappenberger worries that scientists at Virginia’s public universities could become “political appointees, with whoever is in charge deciding which science is acceptable, and prosecuting the rest. Say good-bye to science in Virginia.”
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I - and I suspect many others - wonder how long it will before Cuccinelli does something so over the top that an up swell occurs seeking his removal from office.