John McCain's advisers are making quite a name for themselves this week. First, Doug Goodyear, the man chosen by the campaign to manage this summer's GOP convention, is forced to resign after it's reported that Goodyear's former lobbying firm clients include ExxonMobil and -- far worse -- Burma's military junta.

Now we have Kevin Hassett, director of economic-policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute -- and another McCain adviser -- implying in a column yesterday that the decision to protect polar bears "is the only thing standing between us and $200-a-barrel oil."

First off, it's pretty clear that the McCain Campaign is an irony-free zone this week, given that Hassett's column came a day after McCain delivered his first major climate change speech. That would the speech where the presumptive GOP nominee said "the facts of global warming demand our urgent attention, especially in Washington. Good stewardship, prudence, and simple common sense demand that we to act meet the challenge, and act quickly."

Not so fast, writes Hassett, who argues that no is really sure whether polar bear populations are increasing or decreasing, and then cites an article by a colleague that says the polar bear might just be "conveniently charismatic." Umm, this isn't an otter we're talking about.

"If the polar bear is to be declared threatened," writes Hassett, "it must be because the Interior Department accepts the forecasts of continued global warming, and a significant reduction in Arctic ice." We can't even tell whether he's going for sarcasm here, but he pretty much predicted today DOI decision.

Later in the column, Hassett warns us that not only will the ruling likely end all Arctic exploration for oil and gas, at least in the U.S., but thanks to the global warming argument, "the polar bear could, in theory at least, stop everything." [This made us think about the post we wrote a few months ago about the CERN experiment that really could stop everything.]

Anyway, that's how you get from protecting polar bears to $200 oil, at least in the eyes of one McCain staffer.