American politics is a wonder. Let’s say you’re unhappy with the climate bill narrowly passed by the House of Representatives a while back. You think you might be able to influence the Senate and an eventual conference committee if you could get an opinion piece published in the Washington Post. Who would be your best messenger? A respected scientist to argue about the science? A Nobel prizewinning economist to attack the economics of the bill? Maybe a former government energy official from the not too distant past? How about Sarah Palin?

Sarah Palin? The soon-to-be-former governor of Alaska and Tina Fey lookalike who ran for vice president on the McCain ticket? Why, yes. Sarah’s your choice.

The article she signed  is a political screed, almost utterly bereft of facts and running contrary to most accepted science. Grist Magazine has a series of careful rebuttals as do Huffington Post  and The Atlantic .

But the questions remain: Who cares what Sarah Palin has to say about how to rescue the climate and why in the world is the Post giving her its bully pulpit?