As high profile leaders in the Republican Party go, John McCain deserves some credit for believing that the earth really is warming, and that climate change is real. When it comes to environmental policy, McCain’s votes are pretty unreliable, and his plans to address climate change are sad and thin, but at an absolute minimum, he is willing to admit, publicly, that the scientific data is accurate and cause for concern. In the GOP, this is progress.

But for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to compare McCain favorably to Al Gore just makes him look ridiculous.

“Climate change is the road less traveled but he’s traveled it even more than Al Gore,” Graham said. “Al Gore has talked about it and deserves great recognition but he was around here a long time and never introduced a bill.”

Let me get this straight. Al Gore has done less than John McCain when it comes to climate change? That’s the new argument from one of McCain’s top campaign surrogates?

It’s bad enough to hear Joe Lieberman argue that McCain knows what he’s talking about on Iraq, but Graham is just making a fool out of himself here.

Ben at Think Progress does a fantastic job in shredding Graham’s argument, which Ben said “rings of pure absurdity.”