From SpaceRef.com :

A day after the last of the Presidential campaign debates, a hundred or so space professionals gathered this morning in Washington, DC to hear a debate between representatives of the Bush and Kerry campaigns on space policy. One campaign talked about what it was doing in space - the other talked about what it might do.

Representing the Kerry campaign was Lori Garver from DFI International. Garver said that she had been volunteering her time to the campaign for eight months. Garver is a former NASA Associate Administrator and the former Executive Director of the National Space Society. In recent weeks Garver has made it very clear to a number of people in the aerospace community that she is deeply interested in - and, indeed, is pushing for - the nod to be the next Administrator of NASA - should John Kerry win, of course. As such, Garver had been very anxious to debate Sean O’Keefe so as to enhance her stature as a possible successor. Alas, the Bush campaign decided to use another representative instead. Also in the audience (but not speaking) was John Logsdon from George Washington University who has also been formally advising the Kerry campaign this year.

Representing the Bush campaign was Frank Sietzen. Sietzen is a veteran space journalist and active member of the Republican party in Virginia. In his opening statement, Sietzen sought to allay any concerns about possible conflicts by announcing that he was no longer going to be reporting about space as a journalist and, instead, would be speaking out in support of the President’s space policy.
[…]
When asked to reconcile all that she had said about Kerry’s purported positive views on space with a voting record wherein he repeatedly voted to cut or cancel various NASA activities including the ISS, Garver noted that she was not all that concerned about this - and that one should not consider Kerry’s Senate voting record as being indicative of how Kerry would view NASA as President.
[…]
Sietzen replied with a detailed listing of the multiple occasions wherein Kerry consistently voted against NASA projects over the course of a decade to which Garver was repeatedly dismissive. Garver was either unwilling to defend Kerry’s voting record - or she was unable to. Given the constant harping that both campaigns make about the other candidate’s past - and their voting records - this is an amazingly lazy way for Garver to deal with the issue.
[…]
n the case of the Bush Administration’s space policy - Sietzen discussed a space policy that has actually been announced and is currently being enacted in great detail by NASA - with its budget now being debated by Congress. In stark contrast, and absent any overt space policy plan (Kerry has lots of ‘plans’) the best Lori Garver could do was to suggest what a Kerry policy might be. Indeed, one gets a clear indication that much of what Garver said was what she would like to see- not what Kerry might actually do.

Editor’s Note: For those of you who might be thinking that I am pro-Bush and anti- Kerry - let me set the record straight: if the election of 2004 was only about space policy, I would vote for George Bush without hesitation. I feel that a Kerry Administration would be disastrous for the prospects of a broad, exciting program of true human and robotic space exploration. Indeed, looking at John Kerry’s voting record on space, I feel that under John Kerry, America would shy away from the challenge that has been put before it - and that NASA would revert to what it did under the Clinton Administration i.e. go in circles - and go nowhere.

None the less, I plan on voting for John Kerry - but for a number of reasons that have nothing to do with space.

As such, don’t expect me to suggest how any of you should vote.

(Editor’s Note for TCP - of course, being Australian, I couldn’t vote anyway, the Editor’s Note above is from the original article)

• In 1991, Kerry Voted To “Reduce Funding For The Space Station From $2 Billion To $100 Million,” And Transfer Funds To Other Programs. (H.R. 2519, Congressional Quarterly Vote #132: Rejected 35-64: R 3-40; D 32-24, July 17, 1991, Kerry Voted Yea)
• In 1992, Kerry Voted To Terminate Space Station “Freedom” Project. (H.R. 5679, Congressional Quarterly Vote #194: Rejected 34-63: R 4-39; D 30-24, September 9, 1992, Kerry Voted Yea)
• In 1993, Kerry Voted “To Terminate The Space Station Program.” (H.R. 2491, Congressional Quarterly Vote #272: Motion Agreed To 59-40: R 36-8; D 23-32, September 21, 1993, Kerry Voted Nay)
• In 1993, Kerry Voted To Terminate Space Station Program And Divert Funds To Tax Cuts. (H.R. 3167, Congressional Quarterly Vote #335: Motion rejected 36-61: R 10-32; D 26-29, October 27, 1993, Kerry Voted Yea)
• In 1994, Kerry Voted To Cut $1.9 Billion From Space Station Program, Thus Terminating It. (H.R. 4624, Congressional Quarterly Vote #253: Rejected 36-64: R 6-38; D 30-26, August 3, 1994, Kerry Voted Yea)
• In 1995, Kerry Voted To Reduce NASA Funding By $400 Million. (H.R. 889, Congressional Quarterly Vote #105: Motion Agreed To 64-35: R 43-11; D 21-24, March 16, 1995, Kerry Voted Nay)
• In 1995, Kerry Voted To Cut $1.8 Billion From NASA’s Human Space Flight Program. (H.R. 2099, Congressional Quarterly Vote #463: Motion Rejected 35-64: R 12-41; D 23-23, September 26, 1995, Kerry Voted Yea)
• In 1996, Kerry Voted To Cut $1.6 Billion From NASA’s Human Space Flight Program And Terminate Space Station Program. (H.R. 3666, Congressional Quarterly Vote #267: Motion Agreed To 61-36: R 38-12; D 23-24, September 4, 1996, Kerry Voted Nay)

Posted by Alan Brain at October 15, 2004 10:48 AM | TrackBack