Or something.

No wonder it's been nearly a week and most conservative media voices have remained mum about their once-beloved “Climategate” story. Turns out the trumped-up “Climategate” allegations were themselves a fraud, not the work produced by scientists and administrators who had their emails apparently stolen from the UK's Climate Research Unit (CRU). After the theft late last year, `wingers accused scientists of trying to dupe the public and hide the real facts about global warming.

But last week brought word of the latest independent review of the email 'scandal'; a review that also concluded the players involved did nothing dishonest or corrupt with their email exchanges or their research.

Writing recently on the WSJ's opinion page today, Patrick Michaels, a CATO Institute partisan, finally fashioned a defense of “Climategate” in hopes of keeping the non-story alive. And guess what? There's been cover-up. (Surprise!) In other words, the independent review that disproved the “Climategate” conspiracy is, in itself, a conspiracy.

Talk about a house of mirrors.

Nonetheless, Michaels is sure there's a conspiracy afoot to cover-up the “Climategate” conspiracy. But what about the previous independent reviews of “Climategate” which came to the same no-foul conclusion? You guessed it, they're also part of the conspiracy to cover-up the “Climategate” conspiracy.

Whatever you say Patrick. But if this is the best conservatives can do, I'd say you can stick a fork in “Climategate” -- it's done.