New Hampshire congressional district 1 hopeful Frank Guinta's spokesmen really ought to watch what they say. On Thursday, I put a post up charging the former Manchester mayor with “flip-flopping” on global warming legislation and gave readers links to back up the accusation.

Guinta had signed onto the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, which endorsed the Kyoto protocol emissions targets. He had also signed on to the Sierra Club's Cool Cities Agreement. Now, he is running hard against cap-and-trade legislation.

Within hours of posting that, Guinta campaign consultant and old New Hampshire political hand Mike Biundo wrote to me alleging that the post was “wrong.” He explained, “We never signed on to either the initiatives you mentioned in your article. The Board of Alderman voted for these initiatives but as the chief executive Frank had to sign it. He was not for either proposal.”

That was a stretch, but it least it was plausible that Guinta would sign onto both initiatives unenthusiastically to placate the aldermen. I would have let the matter drop. But the the Nashua Telegraph reported Sunday that Guinta spokesman Sean Thomas was denying that Guinta signed the Mayors agreement at all: “As for the Conference of Mayors, Thomas said the group probably got support from predecessor Mayor Robert Baines, a Democrat, and substitute[d] Guinta's name after the fact.”

Wrong! We know this is wrong because Guinta signed the agreement during an energy summit in Manchester that he convened. According to this story in the newspaper The Hippo, from June 14, 2007, “community leaders signed the U.S. Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement during an energy summit hosted by the Sierra Club last week in Manchester. Joining Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta in that commitment were mayors Bernard Streeter of Nashua” and a bunch of other mayors and officials.

Thomas did admit that Guinta signed the Sierra Club agreement in December 2006 but argued that Guinta's hands were tied and that he was never really in favor of it. He told the Telegraph that “the Manchester Board of Aldermen initiated the Sierra Club arrangement and the mayor signed on as the city's chief executive.”

To which one can only reply, Oh really? Then why did Guinta say (pdf) to local members of the Sierra Club, “As you know I think at the last Aldermanic meeting the Board of Alderman unanimously supported this agreement so we are going to [mark it] with a signing. So, we're very pleased to do this and be an energy friendly and environmentally friendly city.”

And if he was just blowing smoke at that meeting then why did he convene the above-mentioned green summit with the same Sierra Club half-a-year later, where he signed the Mayors agreement?

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