He'll Say Anything

Newt Gingrich wants to colonize the Moon. He wants an American moon station. He would have this in place by 2020, presumably at the end of his second term as President of these great states. Which is the greater fantasy, moon station or second term? Second term, of course, because the idea of a first term is preposterous.

Newt promised the moon, quite literally, to a crowd at Cape Canaveral, Florida, where the space program is in hiatus until a new launch vehicle can be developed. It's unfortunate that the federal government's finances are tight and the Florida folks who have enjoyed the bonanza of the space program's largess are seeing their gravy train dry up. Perhaps, if our country hadn't depleted its resources by two unfunded and unnecessary foreign wars, more money would have been available to hasten the next generation of space vehicles into production. But, as things stand, space stations are a lower priority than paying down the massive debt caused by wars, tax cuts, a recession and obstructionism.