Tea Partier Thinks JSC Employees Supported His Shutdown Vote
Stockman’s office meets with JSC employees to support restoring NASA funding
“Our calls from JSC employees this week are about nine to one in favor of standing strong against Obama’s budget.”
Keith’s note: Rep. Stockman voted to shut the government down in the first place – and now he claims that 90% of JSC employees supported that vote?
Keith, not agreeing or disagreeing with his statement, but JSC employees I’ve met have seemed to be fairly conservative. Also, who knows if his sample set is somehow biased–for instance, if these are friends he’s talking with, he may be getting an unrepresenatively conservative bias. I don’t see any reason to suspect he’s lying though, regardless of whether or not 90% of JSC employees actually do support his position. Politicians like setting up echo chambers for themselves.
I never said he was “lying”, Jon. Nor do I think he is lying. He thinks 90% agree with him – and that is what he said.
Keith, sorry if I misinterpreted your intent. I just took the incredulity in the last sentence to imply that you thought he was blowing smoke. Apologies.
On the other hand, like many of his ilk, he may simply live in an alternate universe.
Jonathan:
You are right that JSC employees are on average conservative, but they are not, in general, in support of the current situation in DC. Telling that to Stockman would be like spitting in the wind, so if he is hearing from JSC employees, it is more than likely the minority who are radical right. It is not representative of JSC as a whole, nor the Clear Lake area. Stockman is doing the political spin to make himself and his views look as thought they represent “the people”.
Stockman must be talking to the JSC civil servants that are effectively on paid vacation. If he would ask the unpaid contractors that are laid off, I bet he would get a different answer.
I believe this about like I believe in the Easter Bunny. The CR should be a clean bill without these ridiculous and unachievable demands attached. If there are problems with Obamacare they will be resolved either through legislation or by the voting public. This crazy practice of attaching crap to the CRs has always been a schoolyard bully approach and is completely irresponsible, The only reason there has to be a CR in the first place is because congress sucks so bad at their jobs.
And because they don’t have to worry about consequences if they are safe in their districts. They and their gerrymandered districts are causing problems for the rest of us. Now is the time for more contenders to run for office in the primaries, please, and independents/centrists need to take action.
i realize this is run by an obama guy and most of the folks on here are musk/obama guys and so it’s fun to say some tea partyer (oooooh scarey they just don’t get it) is a boob. but the reality is having been at Ames for the last shutdown, the vast majority of civil servants see this as a paid vacation. the only inconvenience is not knowing how long the vacation will be so you can’t really go anywhere elaborate. but they’re going to get paid in the end. only the body shop contractors will lose money IF they’re sent home. many will not because their contracted companies will have already been paid. they’ll only have to go home if they physically shut the center and reduce security. so quit worrying about civil servants. they’re going to get paid. and have a vacation.
Have you been at a NASA center in the past week or so? You mention Ames. There are only a few security guards and a dozen or so engineers working on LADEE onsite. People who have driven by refer to it as a ghost town. I hear the same thing from other centers. No one is working and contractor personnel have no guarantee that they will be paid. You have a warped perception of reality, to say the least.
So do you Cowing……..
Time for you to read another website then – we can’t have you reading warped news, now can we?
Yeah, he should stroll over to Fox.
When I want warped news, I watch TV.
Cowing’s ‘warped’ POV is why I read this site. Everyone knows where he’s coming from.
Contractor personnel won’t get paid. That’s the breaks. Consider it a window into the private sector scholarship free universe that exists outside the small cs cocoon
Don’t forget us Musk/Gingrich guys. We’re the REALLY crazy people.
Do you also stand shoulder-to-shoulder with that other Republican, Frank Wolf, as you seem to be with Steve Stockman? PS. Am pro-commercial and liberal – but NO supporter of this President with whom I am disaffected, disillusioned and disenchanted as equally as GOP antics in Washington).
I am offended that you think this is “paid vacation” for civil servants at Ames and other Centers. If we get back pay for the time lost on furlough that is good, of course, but we don’t know that will happen. Meanwhile it is extremely frustrating not to have access to labs or computers or colleagues, to be told we cannot even work at home. The rules stop just short of telling us we can’t think about our science or engineering jobs while on furlough. Those of us (the majority) among both civil servants and contractors who love our jobs and support the space program do not consider this a “vacation”
You’ll get paid the bill has already been passed and signed. Just like 95. Pay closer attention
Keith, you really need to buy a new can of troll spray.
Unfortunately, if you build a better troll trap, they’ll still flock to your door.
Boy it sure doesn’t take much to irritate musk/Obama lovers. Fact is cs are going to get paid and be on vacation accruing time, vacation, sick, etc. pretty good deal for guys who have Cush gigs anyway
NO surprise there Keith. I would debate policy with JSC co-workers often, trust me, there are more than a few who actually support the GOP position.
Steve Stockman was my representative during the last government shutdowns in the fall and winter of 95-96. During that time he was a good soldier for Newt Gingrich and the Contract for America which was at the heart of that budget battle. If I recall correctly, he was one of a very small handful (3-10) that voted against the continuing resolution that ended the first of the two shutdowns. JSC employyes noticed this. I even remember a bumper sticker from the time that read “Anybody but Stockman”. After it was all over Stockman held a town hall in the Building 2 cafeteria and had brought along Rep. James Sensenbrenner in an effort to repair the damage with his constituents. It didn’t work. He lost the next general election to Democrat Nick Lampson after having served a single term. Now he is back in Congress representing a new Congressional district. When I checked yesterday I did not find his name on the list on Wikipedia of members of the Tea Party Caucus (the formal House caucus led by Michele Bachman). This may be a moot point as his political leanings are most certainly aligned with other politicians who are members of he Tea Party caucus. That said, I do not believe that 90% of JSC civil servants agree with shutting down the government as a tactic to use in order to achieve concessions on other items whether they be gutting Obamacare, enacting entitlement reform, or as is implied (but not explicitly stated) by Rep. Stockman, improving NASA’s budget. I certainly do not, and based on the fact that Rep. Stockman was defeated by Democrat Nick Lampson (who held the seat for several more terms until the Tom Delay redistricting of the last decade made it impossible for a democrat, no matter how “blue dog” as was Lampson, to hold the district which included the community across Clear Lake from JSC), I do not think most JSC civil servants support the government shutdown tactic either. Most people don’t enjoy being used as a political pawn.
Forrest Lumpkin
Nick Lampson represented my district before Delay’s redistricting. Although most folks at JSC are Conservative, I atleast thought they would be smart enough to vote for him when he ran aganist Pete Olson. The Conservatives I work with resoundly support the shutdown, while whining about its effects.
Interesting. I have not heard that any of the fellow civil servants in my branch or division in the Engineering Directorate “re-soundly support the shutdown”. Again Stockman, an incumbent Republican in a Republican leaning congressional district, lost the 1996 general election to Lampson for some reason. I have always believed that a significant contributing factor was his voting record related to the two shutdowns during the 1995-1997 Congressional term. I think election results are perhaps more indicative of a demographic’s true sentiment as people who are more “vocal” about their political beliefs disproportionally tend to come from the more extreme ends of the political spectrum – be it either on the left or the right. Given the current House Republican strategy of using the government shutdown and the debt ceiling limit as leverage, it will be interesting to see how he, Pete Olsen, and Randy Weber perform in the precincts near JSC (those most affected by the furloughs) in the 2014 election. Speaking for myself, a moderate independent who has often voted Republican (I voted for McCain and Romney in the two most recent Presidential elections), I would NEVER vote for Steve Stockman (I did not in 1994 or 1996 but I doubt I will ever again have the opportunity since the redrawing of the boundaries makes Randy Weber, who I urged via email last week to support the clean CR being proposed by moderate Republicans such as Pete King of New York, my current representative.)
The real issue in all of this IMHO is that those people in this country who are not extreme in their political views need to be far more active in the politics of the country. My sense is that the majority of the voter eligible people, be they democrat or republican or independent, do not fall in the extreme left or right of the political spectrum. But historically, they are not participants in the politics of the country at anywhere near the level of those who hold radical views. As a conservative independent and former republican, I am afraid the GOP has suffered the most from radical influence on the party, and we are seeing that manifested in the current insanity. We have the right to vote. More people need to exercise that right at all levels of government. If not, we all made the bed we are sleeping in.
Totally agree. Vote everybody. Write a message to your representative!
Agreed, with one qualifier — people need to spend enough time learning about the issues so that they can have an informed opinion, and vote accordingly. It takes time, but not doing it can cost you a lot more when you vote against your own welfare and quality of life.
Steve:
Agree entirely. My bad for assuming that people would do that, but of course that is naive to say the least….
As a libertarian, I hope the GOP is successful in defunding or delaying, what is becoming obvious to all, yet another government CF.
It’s interesting to see that a website which caters to people who love to hate “government rockets” (read that Constellation, SLS, etc.) also caters to people who love “government healthcare”.
BTW, since Griffin chose Musk, I would hope he has the common sense NOT to become identified with this administration. Certainly not a very bright idea in the long run.
—John
I don’t think the readers here would hate SLS (at least the ones who do, since that’s a pretty strong word) if there were enough money and support for it and if it didn’t compete against other worthy concerns in tough times. Most of the people here probably want more space stuff as a very general rule.
I love the smell of ad hominem in the morning.
Because scientists & engineers love to be used as political footballs?
I don’t think soooo