It all started in December 2011 when Ralph Nader suggested that Senator James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) debate now Senator Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts) on the question of climate change. Both Markey and Inhofe agreed to the debate. Politico agreed to host it.

Then the finger pointing started. Both sides said it was a question of scheduling.

Then last week, with the second anniversary of the agreement approaching and still no debate, Nader took a shot at Markey in a column titled — Tea Party Energy vs. Progressive Lassitude in Congress.

“The self-styled progressive Democrats actually outnumber the self-described Tea Partiers in the Congress,” Nader wrote. “But the latter vastly out-hustle their opponents and pressure their own leadership either to go along or be neutral.”

Take for example Senator Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts).

“Long-time Congressman, now Senator, Edward Markey has taken many a leading stand warning about climate change and the Greenhouse effect on the planet,” Nader wrote. “Yet when Republican Senator James Inhofe, who has called climate change a ‘hoax,’ agreed to debate the then-Congressman Markey, Mr. Markey said he too was willing to debate but then found every scheduling excuse he could to avoid the debate over a period of 18 months! The willing sponsor, Politico, was kept waiting to no avail.”

Markey’s office noticed and didn’t like it.

In an e-mail to Nader’s office, Markey chief of staff Jeff Duncan said that Nader was being misled by Inhofe’s office.

“As we have repeatedly tried to explain to Mr. Nader before, he was not given accurate information by Senator Inhofe’s staff regarding our efforts to schedule the debate that he mentions,” Duncan wrote. “Senator Inhofe was somehow never available on any of the days that we proposed, and Mr. Nader has been told that before. That Mr. Nader has continued to rely on this inaccurate information and has made use of it to unfairly criticize Senator Markey is unfortunate and rather sad.”

Nader says Duncan is wrong.

“You didn’t follow this in the detail I did,” Nader wrote to Duncan.

“There was a period in around April of one year, when Senator Inhofe was out promoting his book and was not available,” Nader wrote.

“Overall Senator Inhofe had far more available openings” than Markey over a period of 18 months, Nader wrote.

“It got so Senator Inhofe was taunting then Congressman Markey,” Nader wrote. “Later that year, then Congressman Markey promised that he would call Senator Inhofe twice in order to scour a date for the debate. As far as I know, the calls were not made. All this is now history. Let’s start up the debate once again. Since it is even more convenient now that Congressman Markey has become Senator Markey, I’m asking Senator Inhofe to express his agreement anew about a public debate on global warming and climate change — after all, global warming has increased. Will you ask your boss Senator Markey to do the same?”