. >> as paul waldman wrote in "the washington post" this week, just about every potential candidate yearning for the republican nomination publicly questions the scientific evidence of global warming. among them ted cruz, who says "the last 15 years, there has been no recorded warming." bobby jindal decries global warming as "left-wing environmental theory." rick santorum calls climate change "a beautifully concocted scheme." and rand paul says "the earth's 4.5 billion years old, and you're going to say we had four hurricanes and so that proves a theory?" these contenders have plenty of company, including the republican leader of the senate, mitch mcconnell of coal-rich kentucky, who says he doesn't buy climate change and regularly scorns president obama for talking "about the weather." republican representative dana rohrabacher says global warming is "a total fraud," and he's from california, where every inch of the state is under siege from epic heat and drought. then there's representative joe barton, former gop chair of the house energy and commerce committee who hails from texas, which,