National Review has the story of this morning’s Democrat photo op on Capitol Hill celebrating the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge – presided over by world-class dunce Ed Markey, whose global-warming committee is being disbanded in the 112th Congress.

Markey’s speech, attended by fellow lefty clowns Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), and Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN), included some real gems.

There is no such thing as a tragic wind spill,” he said as he griped about the evils of oil drilling.

Markey also suggested that ANWR be designated as a “national monument,” though he didn’t suggest how that could be justified other than that to do so would keep American business from producing energy from the vast oil reserves there and thus make him happy.

But the real highlight of the event was when Markey noted the 50 or so environmental activists who showed up at the festivities dressed like critters of the cold.

“Iconic animals,” he called them.

Markey either didn’t realize or was perhaps too polite to note that one of his “iconic animals” – a penguin – isn’t found anywhere near the arctic unless it’s at the Nome Zoo. As our buddy Steve Maley gleefully points out…

“Iconic”, Rep. Markey? Maybe you meant “ironic”, since penguins don’t inhabit the Alaskan coastal plain, and never have. In fact, the nearest penguin in the wild would have to swim, oh, about 10,000 miles to visit ANWR.

Of course, facts are inconvenient to imbeciles like Markey – who is thankfully a mere month away from total irrelevance in the U.S. House of Representatives.