More on DeLay and Mars

Hampton Roads (Va.) Virginian-Pilot columnist Bronwyn Lance Chester takes aim at Tom DeLay and his support for NASA’s budget in a piece published Thursday. It’s clear that Chester is not that familiar with the Vision for Space Exploration, which she refers to as “man on Mars” program or even “Project Martian Madness” even though the vision as currently states makes only vague plans for manned Mars missions after 2020. She sees DeLay’s efforts to increase NASA’s efforts as “symptomatic of a larger problem in Washington: a willingness to screw taxpayers nationwide in order to bring home the bacon to a few districts.” The money spent on the vision should, she writes, be spent on a fairly standard litany of other things, including cancer cures and health insurance.

“Maybe I shouldn’t knock the Mars plan. It all depends on whom we want to send,” she concludes. “Tom DeLay springs to mind.”