How support for it can be a political liability.
This happened to Jack Schmitt in
ArizonaNew Mexico, as well. His opponent's campaign slogan was "What *On Earth* Has Jack Schmitt Done For Us?" https://t.co/FUr9endlmH— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) November 16, 2018
I would note that this is another problem with a government space program in a representative republic, and why it’s hopeless to think we can do Apollo again. People who want to see space science happen need to look to other funding sources.
[Update late morning]
D’oh! New Mexico, not Arizona.
Indeed, Fletcher did run ads critical of Culberson’s support of space exploration. She compared his support of the Europa mission to the flooding from Harvey. The sick part of all that is the mismanagement of flood control in Houston isn’t because of the federal government. And of course, she choose Europa because she needed votes from the Democrat friendly NASA civil servants at JSC.
They can also rest assure that it was election posturing, because she’ll likely give JSC all the budget it wants to keep getting those sweet votes. Still, the rest of the country doesn’t need to fund the madness.
Harrison Schmitt was a senator from New Mexico, not Arizona.
D’oh! You’re right.
I remember the Press and Romney doing that same crap to Gingrich during the Republican Primary season of the 2012 election cycle. Unforgivable.
Of course, the Press already hated Gingrich and preferred Romney (since he was among the least Right of the candidates), but the way they mocked Gingrich because he took space policy matters seriously just enraged me.
And now Romney is a U.S. Senator. Effing great.
Oh, I remember that very clearly. Gingrich gave a speech on space policy ahead of the Florida primary, and it was clear that he was a space buff. He was knowledgeable and enthusiastic.
A couple of days later, Romney gave a speech on space policy. He basically said that he would put “top men” to work on it, and concluded with a tearjerking story about a Massachusetts Boy Scout troop sending an American flag to fly on the ill-fated Challenger mission. Which has precisely fuck-all to do with present-day space policy.
It was obvious that he had zero interest or knowledge about the subject. He was just pandering to Florida voters.
But he didn’t stop there. At the next debate, he used Newt’s moonbase proposal for a cheap laugh line. I had flames shooting out of my ears at that point.