After a lengthy delay, the Senate is now moving forward with a vote on taking Republican Representative James Bridenstine out of the House and making him the next director of NASA. Republicans have held off on bringing Bidenstine’s nomination to a vote for the simplest reason—math. With John McCain frequently absent due to his illness, they needed to land all their members or get some Democratic support. Until Wednesday, Florida Senator Marco Rubio had expressed doubts about Bridenstine. Which was enough to keep the whole issue on the back burner, and keep NASA without a leader. But as usual, Rubio’s pretense to being anything more than another rubber-stamp was temporary. And that’s put the Senate in this situation at the moment …
At first glance, Bridenstine might seem like the least-worst of Trump’s nominees. As the former director of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum, a Navy pilot, and one of the authors of the American Space Renaissance Act, at least Bridenstine would seem to know which direction to point the rockets. He hasn’t distinguished himself by having 13 lawsuits against the agency he expects to head, or suggested arming astronauts against the threat of space bears. That’s … something.
But it’s not everything.
Unlike past Nasa administrators, Trump nominee Jim Bridenstine doesn’t have a scientific background. He’s a Republican Congressman from Oklahoma and former Navy pilot. He also has a history of denying basic climate science. That’s concerning because Nasa does some of the world’s best climate science research, and Bridenstine previously introduced legislation that would eliminate Earth science from Nasa’s mission statement.
Not only is Bridenstine on record as a doubter of some of NASA’s most important programs, he’s also up for a spot that manages almost 80,000 workers. Meaning that some of his less scientific views are also a big concern.
Wednesday, Apr 18, 2018 · 6:26:51 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
Jeff Flake’s show of “look how independent I am” lasted approximately 10 minutes longer than Marco Rubio’s. He flipped. The nomination goes forward.
Bridenstine, whose views on climate change have stirred controversy given NASA's role in climate science, also opposes same-sex marriage, saying that "many studies have shown that both a mother and father are essential for raising successful and healthy children."
And there’s a fresh concern—Bridenstine’s role with that Tulsa museum, may have been more about lining his pockets than educating the public.
An investigation and review of public records by the Project On Government Oversight shows that, prior to his time in Congress, Bridenstine led a small non-profit organization into hefty financial losses. Some of the losses involved the use of the non-profit’s resources to benefit a company that Bridenstine simultaneously co-owned and in which he’d invested substantial sums of his own money. …
Bridenstine, while operating a non-profit organization, took money from that organization and “hired” his for-profit company. Which is also defined as self-dealing.
"This is a classic example of the use of a charity's assets for private benefit," said Marc Owens, an expert on tax law at the firm Loeb & Loeb and former head of the Internal Revenue Services's non-profit compliance division. "This could have jeopardized the Museum's status as a tax-exempt organization" under the IRS code since its resources were used to provide him a significant private benefit.
So not only is Bridenstine on record as a climate change denier and opposing gay rights, the one opportunity he had to direct a public budget resulted in his violating the law to funnel that money to his own business.