The GOP plans to hold high profile hearings examining the alleged "scientific fraud" behind global warming, a sleeper issue in this election that motivated the base quite a bit.

Got that?  Empirical investigation of the facts - the search for truth, if you will allow something so quaint - is a fraud.  Besides, it's for eggheads and elitists, a conspiracy against Real People.

This just seems like an unusually harsh overreaction by Griffin.  Apparently what might be behind it is Keith's recent rather cryptic and unwise comment that "Phil Griffin thinks he's my boss."  Looks like Phil is trying to show Keith (and Ed and other Msnbc hosts) that, yes indeed, he is their boss.

Soon-to-be Speaker John Boehner (Ohio) is being pressed by taxpayer groups to slash the salaries of House lawmakers.

Cutting member pay would show voters the new GOP majority in the House is going to lead by example in their efforts to rein in spending and start with their own wallets, say officials with three prominent taxpayer advocacy groups in Washington, D.C.

"There has to be a visible gesture that people can immediately relate to," said Pete Sepp, the executive vice president of the conservative National Taxpayers Union.

"And cutting pay would be one of the best symbols, because unlike virtually anything else the federal government does, when Congress spends money on its own salaries and benefits, people can make a direct comparison to their own situation," Sepp said.
{http://thehill.com/homenews/house/127879-boehner-pressed-to-cut-pay-of-lawmakers}