The Office of Special Counsel is reportedly investigating the propriety of hosting the Kerry town hall meeting at the KSC Visitors Center last Monday, the Washington Post reported Sunday. The Hatch Act prohibits campaign events on federal property; the center is on KSC property but is operated by a private venture, Delaware North. An official with Delaware North said they cleared the event because it was not a “campaign event” but a “town hall meeting”, a distinction that would seem in practice to have very little difference. About 30 NASA employees attended the event, all taking personal leave time to do so.
This is such nonsense. The purpose of the Hatch Act is to prevent political manipulation of the civil service, with political appointees or organizations, not to create some mythical separation of the democratic process from all vestiges of the federal government.
Candidates for president have used national parks as backdrops. Those are federal property. U.S. Park Police and other government employees end up providing security and other services that support “political” events, just as they do movie-making and other non-official activities, usually with some reimbursement to the taxpayers. The key requirement is that every use should be under the same terms and conditions.
The KSC Visitor’s Center is a “concession” operation that has the right to rent out infrastructure which, I suspect, the private concession helped pay for, albeit on federal land. Not allowing the Kerry Campaign to hold an event there might have been more legally offensive than allowing it.
Besides, as a space policy consultant who has worked for various Republican elected and appointed officials, I am glad John Kerry has now visited a major human spaceflight center and seen up close the work that NASA and aerospace industry employees do.
Everyone should just stop the silly chatter about bunny suits and instead debate Senator Kerry’s demonstrated record and stated policy goals re space exploration, development, and settlement.
::Everyone should just stop the silly chatter about bunny suits and instead debate Senator Kerry’s demonstrated record and stated policy goals re space exploration, development, and settlement.
Posted by Jim Muncy at August 1, 2004 03:33 PM ::
Great idea. A spirited live debate of the kind you suggest would be fun to watch. Now, who would you put on the debate teams?