It begins...

The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a.k.a. Big Oil's Mouthpiece, has begun the counter-attack on Al Gore and his movie, An Inconvenient Truth. The line seems to be, as Matt Stoller put it, "The oil companies are saying outright, who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes/Al Gore/scientists/hurricane victims/all common sense?"

Here's my favorite part of Think Progress' story:

Exxon’s spokesperson Tom Cirigliano has explained why the company is so dedicated to funding CEI’s pushback on global warming:

We want to support organizations that are trying to broaden the debate. … There is this whole issue that no one should question the science of global climate change that is ludicrous. That’s the kind of dark-ages thinking that gets you in a lot of trouble.

Pot 1, Kettle 0.