Eric Lach July 21, 2010, 4:37 PM

Remember the right-wing freakout over NASA administrator Charles Bolden’s comments that the agency was reaching out to Muslim nations? At least one Republican Senate candidate seems to have bought the hype.

According to Denver Post columnist Mike Littwin, Colorado Republican Senate candidate Jane Norton was asked a question about NASA’s budget — unrelated to Muslim outreach — during a taped debate with her Republican opponent Ken Buck (the primary is August 10).

Norton was asked about NASA budget cuts and how they’d affect jobs in Colorado. This is not exactly a hot-button issue. And Norton, not surprisingly, said she was strongly against any loss of jobs in Colorado.

She made her case and then added: “We need a NASA budget that doesn’t cater to making Muslims feel good but that is strong on science …”

Littwin suggests the story hadn’t registered in Colorado. In fact, he had to look it up himself.

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.

Read the rest here.

(h/t Ben Smith)

CO-SEN, Jane Norton