Tucker Carlson's Daily Caller stands virtually alone in their steadfast and deliberately ignorant defense of reporter Matthew Boyle's story falsely alleging that the Environmental Protection Agency was “asking taxpayers to fund up to 230,000 new government workers.”

They do have one high-profile supporter, though: Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK). Inhofe's office pushed the false Daily Caller report when it was first published, and they posted a tangled defense of the article that Daily Caller executive editor David Martosko proudly brandished in his discursive editorial note lashing out at the (100-percent correct) critics of his publication's reporting.

That Inhofe would run to the Daily Caller's defense is not surprising. The Daily Caller has quite an amicable relationship with the Oklahoma Republican, based largely on shared skepticism of climate change science. Inhofe has granted several interviews to the Daily Caller, and the publication has a habit of simply repackaging Inhofe's public statements as “news.” Articles that employ the “Sen. Inhofe said X today” formula pop up frequently in the Daily Caller archives, and Inhofe's office eagerly republishes those stories on the Environment and Public Works Committee press blog.

Also of note: a Daily Caller columnist bestowed upon Inhofe the 2010 “Award For Political Incorrectness” in recognition for “debunking” the “brazen chicanery” of “the global warming myth” -- an award the senator was happy to receive.

Here's a sampling of the Daily Caller's transcription-as-news treatment of Inhofe.

February 18, 2011: "Sen. Inhofe turns tables on global warming ambushers -- and gets it on tape"

The tables were turned, however, when instead of making Inhofe -- whose cause célèbre has been questioning the global warming agenda -- look foolish, the senator made mince meat of his would-be ambusher. Fortunately, Matt Dempsey, Inhofe's communications director, was there to catch it all on camera.

February 23, 2010: "Inhofe calls for investigation of researcher Michael Mann"

Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma will ask the Justice Department to investigate Pennsylvania State University climatologist and White House adviser Michael E. Mann for his involvement in Climategate, Inhofe told The Daily Caller Monday night.

“They've been mocking me for years. Redemption is going to feel good,” Inhofe said in a phone interview.

July 23, 2011: "Inhofe bill would shine sunlight on regulation costs"

Environmental regulations drain hundreds of billions of dollars from the U.S. economy each year, and it mostly goes unnoticed by the public.

But proposed legislation from Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhofe could make the cost of such government interference more transparent.

“Everybody here is focusing on spending and taxes,” Inhofe said, “but what most people don't realize is the cost of regulation is just as much as the cost of all of the taxes ... it's just less detectable.”

March 31, 2011: "Sen. Jim Inhofe: Obama can't veto legislation blocking EPA regulations"

As of Wednesday night, a vote may finally be in sight for an amendment that would revoke the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. After days of back and forth over scheduling, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid signaled late Wednesday that a vote is tentatively set for Thursday afternoon.

The amendment, offered by Minority leader Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, is based off legislation authored by Republican Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma. It is part of a group of highly contentious amendments attached to a small business bill that have kept Democrats from bringing it to the floor for a vote.

Other than McConnell's, the other two amendments, offered by Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Sen. Mike Johanns of Nebraska, would do away with a tax credit for ethanol farmers and repeal the 1099 reporting rule for small business, respectively.

“I am concerned about this,” Inhofe told The Daily Caller in an interview when discussing the ever changing vote schedule.

But according to Inhofe, the reason the EPA amendment hasn't come up for a vote yet is because Democrats are concerned about what it could do to their re-election chances in 2012.

“The main reason they don't want a vote on this is because they have 23 Democratic senators coming up for re-election,” he told TheDC. “That would be a huge hit for them.”

5/24/2011: "Inhofe letter asks why EPA requests $1.24 billion in new funding, despite $2 billion on hand"

Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhofe is challenging the Environmental Protection Agency's request for $1.24 billion in new funding when the agency has more than $2 billion at hand left over from the 2011 budget.

A February report from the Office of Management and Budget showed the agency still had $2.26 billion in unspent funding at the time. The EPA has requested $1.24 billion in additional funding for the 2012 fiscal year.

In a letter sent to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson Tuesday, obtained by The Daily Caller, Inhofe questioned the agency's choice not to spend the unused funds and asked why its budget has grown so much.

“At a time when we are looking for every opportunity to cut spending and reduce the deficit, the EPA must be held accountable for why such a large portion of funds from the FY2011 Superfund budget sat idle and were clearly not used to protect the environment or public health,” Inhofe, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, told TheDC.

3/28/2011: "Are environmentalists an obstacle to clean energy production?"

“We've got environmentalists out there who are fighting with environmentalists over whether or not they want renewable wind power or they want to save the chicken,” Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhofe told The Daily Caller regarding Oklahoma environmentalists and their effort to block construction of wind farms because of how it could negatively affect prairie chickens.

Inhofe then charged that the environmentalists want to stop all energy production regardless of its source.

“They don't want us to exploit any of our resources, so then we have to go to the Middle East, and that causes the price of oil to go up, supply and demand,” Inhofe said.

The senator believes an apparent hostility to energy production lies behind the effort to push cap and trade through using Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations targeting carbon emissions by farmers, manufacturers and power plants.

6/2/2011: "Inhofe bill seeks to reverse Obama, send suspected terrorists to Guantanamo Bay"

Not a single high-value detainee has been sent to the terrorist detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay (Gitmo) since Barack Obama became president, but Oklahoma GOP Sen. James Inhofe hopes to change that with legislation.

Critics contend the president's policy has hamstrung the intelligence community in their efforts to collect intelligence about potential terror suspects and thwart their plans. The Obama administration has instead opted to detain and interrogate detainees it considers to be of high value in Afghanistan under the eyes of the CIA and the FBI.

[...]

“Once we find them and begin to interrogate them, we don't have a free hand,” Inhofe told The Daily Caller. “We need to get a lot of these high-value detainees who are high enough up...That's how we got Osama bin Laden.”

Inhofe calls the Afghanistan detention facilities “revolving doors” because we don't have any idea who is coming and going.

“Some 400 of them in Afghanistan are out trying to kill Americans again -- the ones we actually caught,” Inhofe said, referring to the detainees who have been caught by the U.S. and who have been let go due to interference from the Afghan government.

Other independent estimates place that number closer to 500.

12/15/2010: "Inhofe: WikiLeaks climate revelations show Obama's 'desperation'"

The revelation that the Obama administration used a covert CIA program to dig up dirt on countries opposed to the Copenhagen climate treaty shows a White House desperate to enforce its orthodoxy on global warming, Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhofe told The Daily Caller.

[...]

“For the last 10 years, I have been largely alone on this, but people have learned to understand the economics as well as the science, and clearly we have won,” Inhofe said. "[Obama] has certain things he has to do for the far-left. One is on the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' repeal; one is abortions in military hospitals, and one is on cap-and-trade.

“He has to use every resource that's available to him to get this liberal agenda through, knowing it won't go through,” Inhofe continued. “I can see the conversations right now with George Soros: 'He should be using the NSA on this.' He's going to use every resource and it's not going to work, so nothing surprises me.”