Krauthammer Rips NASA Chief for Declaration to Improve Relations with Muslim World

July 5th, 2010 9:08 PM

If you haven't heard the report of the remarks recently made by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden over what the role of his agency, it's a little troubling. And it hasn't gone unnoticed, at least not by syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer

Recently, Bolden, in an interview with Al Jazeera English, said that the "foremost" mission of NASA is to improve relations with the Muslim world. This drew the ire of Krauthammer on the July 5 broadcast of Fox News Channel's "Special Report with Bret Baier." (h/t Gateway Pundit)

"This is a new height in fatuousness," Krauthammer said. "NASA was established to get America into space and to keep is there. This idea to feel good about their past and to make achievements is the worst combination of group therapy, psychobabble, imperial condescension and adolescent diplomacy."

And how does Krauthammer think this should be handled? Assuming Bolden wasn't instructed by President Barack Obama to make this gesture, he said he should be immediately fired for deviating from the intended purpose of NASA.

"If I didn't know that Obama had told this, I'd demand the firing of Charles Bolden the way I would Michael Steele," he continued. "This is absolutely unbelievable."

In the interview in question, Bolden had said he was tasked with doing the following by the President, including the claim the "foremost" mission was for the space agency to reach out to the Muslim world.

"When I became the NASA administrator -- or before I became the NASA administrator - [Obama] charged me with three things," Bolden said. "One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science ... and math and engineering."