Apparently, during a Senate debate at Channel 12, Jane Norton said, "We need a NASA budget that doesn't cater to making Muslims feel good but that is strong on science ..." This scandalized Littwin, who assumed it was a cheap shot at Muslims. Evidently, he hadn't seen the video of NASA head Charles Bolden that's been making the rounds on the conservative and libertarian blogosphere:
Remarkably, instead of conceding that we're paying all those scientists, engineers, and bureaucrats to actually achieve, or at least facilitate achievement, in space, Littwin uses his and the rest of the MSM reporters' ignorance of the interview as evidence that the argument was out of place, and then goes straight for the race card:
When I read the stories, I remembered hearing something about it. But when I showed Norton's quote to several people up on the news — but not necessarily up on Fox News — they each registered a blank.
That suggests something we already knew: that we get our news these days from different places. What it doesn't tell us, though, is why Norton thought the story was worth mentioning at all.
Presumably Norton meant to say "Muslim countries" rather than all "Muslims," including those who might live, say, next door. I guess that's still up for debate.
For the record, I'm as proud as anyone of Ilan Ramon, but his presence on the shuttle should have been incidental to its mission, not actually its mission. Also for the record, I'm with Bill Whittle when he lauds NASA's retreat to make room for a more sustainable private space program.
A few years ago, at an LPR session, Littwin told me that reporters were well aware of the blogosphere, that they spent tons of time reading blogs in an effort to understand this new media. Seems they manage to miss HotAir, Powerline, Pajamas Media, Instapundit.
The line of argument, to the extent that there is one, is that since Littwin hadn't seen the video, Norton may be a bigot. In a year when the left's traditional arguments appear to have run out of steam, there's one they think they can reliably return to, time and again. The JournoList extracts over at Daily Caller indicate the power that the accusation of racism once had, and that the left still thinks it has. But with the country having elected a black president, answering a cry of "read the Constitution" with "you must be racist" is increasing falling on deaf ears.
Those who thought that Obama's presidency might herald a post-racial era may yet be right. Just not exactly how they thought.
