Gore Blocked From Speaking at Space Center
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HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Democratic vice presidential nominee Al Gore was blocked from speaking today at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, and his Alabama campaign staff blamed politics.
But Edward Frankle, chief attorney for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, said federal law prohibits candidates from staging overt political events at government agencies.
Vice President Dan Quayle spoke Aug. 31 at the space center, as did then-presidential candidates George Bush and Michael S. Dukakis four years ago. But a Marshall spokesman, Dominic Amatore, said Quayle’s talk to NASA employees and defense contractors “was not overt campaigning, and the guy is vice president. Gore could come here as long as he doesn’t solicit votes or attack the Administration. That’s pretty standard.”
But in his talk, Quayle said, “we’re the ones who have a strong, vigorous space program, not Bill Clinton”--the Democratic presidential nominee.
Gore spoke at the Goddard Space Center in Maryland on Monday and attacked the Administration’s space policy.
John Saxon of Birmingham, chairman of the Clinton-Gore campaign in Alabama, called NASA’s statement “a fig leaf of an excuse.”
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