“Brains… BRAINS!!!” Anthony Watts agrees with Pat Michaels that the “explanations are getting desperate” because ‘liberal’ cognitive scientist George Lakoff says:
“It relates directly (to global warming) because conservatives tend to feel that the free market should be unregulated and (that) environmental regulations are immoral and wrong,” Lakoff said.
“And what they try to do is show that the science is wrong and that the argument is wrong, based on the science. So when it comes back to science, they try to debunk the science,” Lakoff said.
Christopher Joyce says “This puzzles many climate scientists, but not social scientists, whose research suggests that facts may not be as important as one’s beliefs“. Yup.
Social scientist Don Braman says “People tend to conform their factual beliefs to ones that are consistent with their cultural outlook, their world view“. Yup again.
Pat Michaels “asserts that science doesn’t confirm, and in some cases even rejects, the existence of human-caused global warming”. He also says “this line of authority is a policy response where the minority would tell the majority how to live,” Oh, here’s the desperate explanation part.
Wott's Up With That? 
Now didn’t Pat Michaels tell the Heartland Institute that the globe is warming and we most likely have something to do with it, so deal with it? Peter Sinclair in one of his Crocks of the Week has that video clip included. Isn’t he the one who got upset when a journalist assumed he is saying global warming isn’t occurring? “When did I say that? Show me where I said that!”
If he’s going to speak out of both sides of his mouth, then he shouldn’t be so sensitive when people (mis?)interpret him as saying global warming isn’t occurring.
[I’d say that Michaels is politically fully on-side with the denialist position, but he makes just enough qualifying comments (such as the Heartland Institute conference statement) to avoid being pinned down. – Ben]
The comments to this article on WUWT validate Lakoff’s findings :D