On Wednesday, Oklahoma's Republican Sen. James Inhofe was asked an interesting question concerning John McCain's views about global warming.

In reference to his now infamous comment that global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people, Inhofe was asked whether he viewed McCain as a “victim” of the hoax or a “perpetrator."

Inhofe, who since 1996 has enjoyed a ringside seat to McCain's statements on the subject, offered this to explain why his Senate colleague works so hard to greenwash his true voting record:

"People are afraid of some of the environmentalists out there because they pour all the money into campaigns and, consequently, we have a lot of people who fall in that category, and some of them are Republicans."

Really? McCain's looking for environmental money? Any potential donor can discover easily enough that John McCain is no maverick when it comes to clean energy and the environment. His actual voting record aligns perfectly with Senate Republicans' very consistent history of voting against  environment protections and renewable energy.

Now, if these GOP environmentalists want a maverick to give their money to, there actually are three or four Republicans who consistently vote for renewable energy.

There's Maine's locally popular Susan Collins, or Cynthia Snowe (also of Maine) who reached across the aisle with the Kerry/Snowe Cap and Trade. There's even Gordon Smith of Oregon (who has cleaned up his voting record since nearly being scared out of his seat in 2002 by unusually well-organized environmental legislative activists in Portland.)

These are your Republican environmental mavericks, not McCain.

Just in case you're so inclined.

Photo from the Exxon-funded Heritage Foundation
Via Joseph Romm