The Washington Post reports that Obama is shortlisting Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for head of the Environmental Protection Agency. This is mind-bogglingly bad judgment, if true.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is a rabid extremist who disbelieves science when it conflicts with his political views. As late as last year, he was still flogging the completely disproven claim that vaccines cause autism. This isn’t harmless kookery. Scares about vaccines have directly caused sickness and death for children around the world who would have otherwise been protected.

This is literally as bad as if McCain had won and floated Michael Crichton, a noted global warming denier before his unexpected death yesterday, for head of EPA.

If this is the change we’re going to get, I expect to see Jenny McCarthy named head of Health and Human Services next.

Liberals aught to be angrily protesting one of their own perpetuating the anti-science bias of the Bush administration. However, if studies of cognitive dissonance have taught us anything, tortured justifications will be on the way shortly.