Global warming deniers seize on anything that a denier says, but choose to question the vast majority of scientists who believe in global warming. While I certainly believe that humankind contributes to global warming, my point has always been we should use the issue to clean up our air and envionrment. There is no harm in taking better care of our world, even if it costs a few dollars per person.
Bob Carter, the scientist making the claim that global warming has stopped, by the way, has good right-wing credentials:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Bob_Carter
One blogger points out that Carter chooses 1998 because it's an anomalous year even in terms of global warming.
http://blog.ctrlbreak.co.uk/?p=374
"Gee, I wonder why the focus on 1998? Well, if you actually go to the website of the Climate Research Unit this is what you find:
The 1990s were the warmest decade in the series. The warmest year of the entire series has been 1998, with a temperature of 0.58°C above the 1961-90 mean. Nine of the ten warmest years in the series have now occurred in the past ten years (1995-2004) … Analyses of over 400 proxy climate series (from trees, corals, ice cores and historical records) show that the 1990s is the warmest decade of the millennium and the 20th century the warmest century. The warmest year of the millennium was 1998 …."