Jackson-Lee’s Planetary Gaffe

@ The Hill newspaper, September 10, 1997

Compiled by Eamon Javers; Sandy Hume contributed to this page.

It appears that someone needs to tell Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas) that
“Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus” is only a book title, not a
statement of fact.

During a Science Committee trip to Pasadena, Calif., during the recess, Jackson-
Lee reportedly asked an official at the Mars Pathfinder Mission Control Center
whether humans could live on Mars. 

That question may have been purely hypothetical, but it was merely a follow- up
to another remarkable query from the congresswoman: Did the Pathfinder
Mission succeed in taking pictures of the American flag planted by Astronaut Neil
Armstrong in 1969? Of course, Armstrong planted the flag on the Moon, not
Mars.

Jackson-Lee, whose Houston district neighbors the Johnson Space Center, sits on
the Aeronautics and Space Subcommittee. Fellow committee member Rep. Vern
Ehlers (R-Mich.), a former physics professor, didn’t consider the questions out of
the ordinary.

“If you ask the American people how long it takes the Earth to orbit the sun, 50
percent can’t tell you,” Ehlers said. “We just don’t teach enough science.”

In defense of Jackson-Lee, Ehlers added, “If I were on a tour of a law school, I

could ask an equally inane question about points of law.”