GOP debate: Lunar mining joke launches attacks and reprisals

The first intra-party attacks didn’t come until the third question of Saturday night’s GOP debate in Iowa — and they started on a lighter note.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney got some laughs from the crowd when he said he differs from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich when he said that he doesn’t like the idea of setting up a lunar colony on the moon to mine for precious metals. 

{mosads}It was an off-the-cuff remark prompted by an unexpected follow-up question from debate moderator George Stephanopoulos, but it opened to the door to back-and-forth accusations between Romney and Gingrich.

Romney was asked what he thought about Gingrich’s remarks that he is the more electable candidate. Rather than going after Gingrich, Romney initially pivoted to blasting President Obama, but Stephanopoulos came back asking for specific ways in which he differed from Gingrich.

“We could start with his idea to have a lunar colony that would mine minerals from the moon,” Romney said. “I’m not in favor of spending that kind of money to do that.”

Gingrich has been a long time proponent of the commercial space industry, and earlier this year proposed starting “a permanent colony on the moon” that would allow us to mine it for precious metals.

“I grew up in a generation when the space program was real, where it was important, and frankly it’s tragic that NASA has been so bureaucratized,” Gingrich responded. “I’m happy to defend the idea that America should be in space and should be there in an aggressive entrepreneurial way.”

From there, the accusations and reprisals spread to healthcare policy, who has “insider” status and which has spent more time in the private sector.