A hearty shout-out from the past to the future! Walt Kubilius and myself with U.S. Senator (and former astronaut) Harrison 'Jack' Schmitt (R - NM), in his Washington, D.C. office (early August 1978). We didn't expect to see him when we visited his office, but for some unknown reason he seemed to be idle, and welcomed us in.Walt adds:
That was a fun visit. Marc, you may have forgotten that we had an appointment to see him - that's why the photographer was there. At the time (22 years of age), I was very impressed with him. I don't remember why he failed to get reelected.I reply:
I was surprised we got in. I don't remember the appointment: you probably set that up. According to Wikipedia: "He sought a second term in 1982, but due to a deep recession and concerns that he wasn't paying attention to local matters, he was defeated in a re-election bid by the state Attorney General Jeff Bingaman by a 54% to 46% margin. Bingaman's campaign slogan asked, 'What on Earth has he done for you lately?'."Walt replies:
Tough luck for him. If he had been elected in either 74 or 78 (instead of 76), he would probably have been reelected in 80 or 84, on Reagan's coat-tails.I reply:
Politics is a crap shoot! Bingaman adjusted well to the seat, and Domenici had the other seat, so the Senate was closed off to him forevermore. Technically-trained folks have trouble adjusting to politics, in general. Maybe John Glenn is the only counterexample.
Official portrait of the Apollo 17 crew.
Caption: Official portrait of the Apollo 17 crew.
U.S. Congressman Manuel Lujan, Jr. (R - NM, 1st District)
Another possible reason Jack Schmitt was not re-elected was that he has a temper, and alienated many New Mexicans. A couple of years ago I was at a small meeting he was sitting in on, and made the comment that we were more likely to send astronauts to an asteroid before we ever return them to the moon and he got pissed of and walked out.
ReplyDeleteInteresting! I didn't know that, Mike.
ReplyDelete