"I will bear true faith"

So much for that, as far as Vice President Cheney is concerned. The NY Times adds additional details to the story of how the White House sought to avoid regulating greenhouse gases by preventing the CDC from testifying before Congress about the health impacts of greenhouse gases and climate change.

The White House, at the urging of Cheney's office, ''requested that I work with CDC to remove from the testimony any discussion of the human health consequences of climate change,'' wrote [former EPA official Jason] Burnett.

''CEQ contacted me to argue that I could best keep options open for the (EPA) administrator (on regulating carbon dioxide) if I would convince CDC to delete particular sections of their testimony,'' he wrote.

But he said he refused to press CDC on the deletions because he believed the CDC's draft testimony was ''fundamentally accurate.''

Burnett said Cheney's office also objected last January over congressional testimony by Administrator Johnson that ''greenhouse gas emissions harm the environment.'' An official in Cheney's office ''called to tell me that his office wanted the language changed'' but that it was kept as it was.

Burnett also described in greater detail than previously reported the White House refusal in December to accept a draft EPA finding concluding that carbon dioxide, the leading greenhouse gas, is endangering human health.

After he sent the e-mail with the draft finding attached, he said he received a telephone call from the White House asking that he ''send a follow-up note saying that the e-mail had been sent in error.''

''I explained that I could not do that because it was not true,'' wrote Burnett. Boxer said the draft finding was now ''in limbo'' and not available for public review.