Marco Rubio Gets an Endorsement From the Senate's Global Warming Denier-in-Chief

Marco Rubio, in his campaign to topple Charlie Crist in the Republican senate primary, has again nabbed an endorsement from a sitting senator, and again it's a guy who may hold sway in the conservative movement but isn't likely to be very influential in Florida: Oklahoma's Senator Jim Inhofe.

Inhofe is perhaps best known as one of the biggest global warming skeptics in Washington, calling the scientifically accepted theory "a hoax." Even once suggesting it's a scam being perpetrated by the Weather Channel to improve ratings. He compared Miami's own Carol Browner, former EPA director and current head of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, to Tokyo Rose. That might play big in a land locked state like Oklahoma, but perhaps citizens of Florida, surrounded on three sides by water, might appreciate a slightly more reasoned debate on the issue.

Of course, his partisan rhetoric goes beyond just global warming. He's the guy who coined the term "God, guns and gays," which seems to be the GOP's most reliable political strategy.

Collecting endorsements from guys like Inhofe, Sen. Jim DeMint and Mike Huckabee might entrench Rubio even further in the conservative base, but they won't make much of a difference electorally. To do that he's going to need to get the backing of a bigwig who's actually influential in Florida, perhaps even someone who lives in Florida and is familiar with the issues important in the state (imagine that!). Jeb Bush is the most obvious prize, but so far he's remaining quiet.