Confirmation Hearing Set For Bridenstine
Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation Nomination Hearing (Bridenstine et al)
“U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, will convene a nominations hearing at 10:00 a.m. on 1 November, 2017, to consider four nominations subject to Senate confirmation.”
The hearing will air on NASA TV (NTV-1 (Public)) and the agency’s website at: http://www.nasa.gov/live
Watching these events it’s fun to guess, from public statements, the sort of backroom conversations that must have occurred.
A few things I noticed:
Sen. Nelson comes out swinging, for instance.
And damn but the Congressman looks so young :-)! That’s not a bad thing- we’ve screwed things up enough, time to let the kiddies make their mark.
The other nominees drew the lucky straw being bunched with the NASA guy. Very few questions, although the lady headed to CPSD is a little troubling judging from her opening statement.
“You can’t have a hearing anymore without someone bringing up global warming!” – Sen. Inhofe
Bridenstine tells Sen. Nelson that the far right nonsense he uttered just a few years ago isn’t relevant to being Administrator. That’s partly true, I suppose, but in this case disingenuous; the claim that he was just representing the First District is true, but his views happen to align with his constituents.
Says that NASA is the only Agency equipped to handle climate research not mentioning for instance NOAA. However he was very clear about the role of AGW.
Nothing about SLS; one statement about the moon being a stepping stone. A bit about hypersonic’ applicability to the military. Broad support for basic research. Mention of space debris.
Sen. Hassan (NH) notes he scrubbed his public record of mentions of global warming. He denies it. Says only campaign materials removed. Not true though as Sen. Hassan detailed.
Sen. Markey says that “fear is rampant” among scientists doing climate research (I wonder if this is true?) B says he promises not to reassign any of them or take action against them.
There’s no question that this is a very smart, very enthusiastic young man. Comes across as very decent. From time to time looks like he’s caught in the headlights but lands on his feet. A very marked difference in demeanor compared with Dr. Griffin some years ago.
Occasionally obsequious (as with Sen. Nelson), evidence of youth more than anything.
But: No signal on his temperance. Or intemperance.
Question not asked: “How does the capability of SX, both currently operational and planned, affect any of NASAs long term plans?”
As a progressive I’m not particularly troubled by his right-wing thinking; it’s a big country.
Having just watched the last 30 minutes or so of the hearing, I must say that the nominee MUST be passionately committed to NASA for him to be willing to submit himself to so much petty politically polarized sniping by some of these committee members. For instance, I was unaware until Sen. Duckworth’s pathetic attempt at character assassination that it was vital for the NASA administrator (and all of his occasional associates) to be on the good side of the Southern Poverty Law Center, that bastion of aerospace gravitas. I so look forward to Mr. Bridenstine’s confirmation and swearing in so we can get back to discussing NASA’s role in the advancement of space exploration and aviation, as opposed to it’s leaders degree of compliance with liberal ideology.
I’d agree at least to the extent that the questions seemed largely irrelevant and subject to senatorial preening.
Yes, it’s extremely annoying how every time a politician gets in front of a microphone at one of these confirmation inquisitions…er, sessions, that it turns into an excuse for them to attempt to spank the nominee on every barely relevant to irrelevant topic that they wish to grandstand on. Duckworth’s performance was bad enough; don’t get me started on Nelson’s asinine attempt to ambush Bridenstine with an ancient tax return from the Tulsa Air & Space Museum. Pathetic…..
Remember, the real purpose of a confirmation hearing is to generate sound bites for re-election campaigns since their staff already knows what the nominee thinks and believes.
Those that are willing to cast their ethics aside and drink the Trump Kool Aid shouldn’t be too surprised to discover it is poison.
Amazing. So if I get this right you can say anything you want, divide, offend, and deny common sense, decency and science. THEN say your applying for a new job where your commited to the opposite, because that’s what the new job requires. Throw in some smart banter about scientific this or that and your done! All sins are forgiven, or at least IRRELEVANT! Wow, I have to remember this trick.