I used to think that science had the "hard" facts and that politics was mutable, adjusting to the facts of knowledge and to the vagaries of life.

Well, it ain't necessarily so:

Bush Aide Softened Greenhouse Gas Links to Global Warming

By ANDREW C. REVKIN
Published: June 8, 2005

A White House official who once led the oil industry's fight against limits on greenhouse gases has repeatedly edited government climate reports in ways that play down links between such emissions and global warming, according to internal documents.

In handwritten notes on drafts of several reports issued in 2002 and 2003, the official, Philip A. Cooney, removed or adjusted descriptions of climate research that government scientists and their supervisors, including some senior Bush administration officials, had already approved. In many cases, the changes appeared in the final reports.

The dozens of changes, while sometimes as subtle as the insertion of the phrase "significant and fundamental" before the word "uncertainties," tend to produce an air of doubt about findings that most climate experts say are robust.

Mr. Cooney is chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the office that helps devise and promote administration policies on environmental issues.

"Significant and fundamental uncertainties"--the phrase changes the entire impact of the report. I found it very disturbing that this kind of editing was called 'part of the normal review process'. Read the full article here.