Has Global Warming Turned Into a Religion?

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Liberals Strong-Armed?

Some liberal House Democrats are complaining about strong-arm tactics from their leadership ahead of tomorrow's expected vote on a bill that attaches a troop withdrawal deadline to continued funding of the Iraq war.

The Politico newspaper reports one unnamed congressman says Democratic leaders made it clear they might yank funding requests for projects in his district if he did not vote for the measure.

Party officials have also added billions of dollars in classic pork-barrel spending to make the bill more attractive to fence-sitters.

And The Hill newspaper saysHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi implied that the ultraliberal Congresswoman Barbara Lee might lose her seat on the Appropriations Committee if she did not vote for the bill. Lee and others on the left think the bill is too weak.

Warming Up

As Al Gore was giving his views about global warming to members of Congress today, lawmakers received a strikingly different view of the issue from the president of the Czech Republic.

Vaclav Klaus said in written testimony that global warming has turned into a religion that has replaced the ideology of communism and threatens basic freedoms. Mr. Klaus said the push to curb greenhouse gases will hurt poorer nations that can't afford modern technology. He compares radical environmentalists to Marxists, and says initiatives such as the Kyoto Protocol require enormous costs without any realistic prospect for success.

Stepping Out

College Republicans at San Francisco State University held an anti-terrorism rally last October during which they stepped on pieces of paper painted to resemble the flags of the terror groups Hamas andHezbollah.

Another student filed a formal complaint accusing the Republican group of attempting to incite violence and creating a hostile environment. The school took it seriously enough to schedule a formal hearing.

The students' rights group called the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education said the hearing was illegal — contending a public institution cannot prosecute students for political protests.

The hearing was held — and the College Republicans were exonerated. University President Robert Corrigan says the students did nothing wrong and the charges were groundless.

Who Did It?

And the biggest mystery in Washington continues to be — who made that Internet video depicting Hillary Clinton as an Orwellian big brother figure? The Washington Post says the Barack Obama campaign says it had nothing to do with it. The video's creator goes by the handle "Park Ridge 47," and so far he or she isn't talking.

But Howard Kurtz of the Post points out that Senator Clinton was born in Park Ridge, Illinois in 1947.

—FOX News Channel's Martin Hill contributed to this report.