An Oregon state legislator has immortalized Spock, the iconic Vulcan science officer of the Federation starship Enterprise, as the "greatest Republican in the history of the galaxy."
Speaking on the floor of the Oregon House on Friday, Republican Rep. Bill Post, who represents Keizer, St. Paul and Newberg, raised his right hand in the classic split-fingered Vulcan greeting, and said: "Today is a sad day in history. Today, the greatest Republican in the history of the galaxy, he was a legal alien who believed in prosperity, passed away. So I want to say, Dif-tor heh smusma (Vulcan for "live long and prosper"), Spock. Thank you."
Story continues below video.
Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock for the three years of the original series and reprised the role in several movies, actually was a Democrat.
Nimoy, who died Friday in Bel Air, California, at the age of 83, endorsed President Barack Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry and several other Democrat candidates and committees,
NNDB reports.
Obama commented on Nimoy's death: "Long before being nerdy was cool, there was Leonard Nimoy. And of course, Leonard was Spock. Cool, logical, big-eared and level-headed,"
Politico reported.
"I loved Spock."
NNDB also notes that Nimoy originated the Vulcan greeting sign Rep. Post used, and last played Spock in a film in 2009.
Post, responding to the liberal furor which followed his House statement, posted on his website: "The funniest part about my 'Spock tribute' is the amount of people, mostly on the left, who didn't 'get it.' My wife says it's the 'dead pan humor' of my delivery. That was part of the joke! No emotion — logic. I know Spock is not a D or an R. Sheesh!
"I am so grateful for the wonderful sense of humor that my colleagues in the Oregon House have. They 'got it!' What you don't see on the video is how many of them flashed their 'Vulcan' sign at me! They loved it, both Democrat and Republican. We had had a tough battle on the floor and I just felt that it was my job (as it is many times) to add a bit of levity to the day, to end the day.
"Please use your Vulcan logic and see that even he would have thought it was 'illogical' and 'fascinating' that someone would
remember him with great love and admiration on the day he died."
In other Spock tributes, Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, called Nimoy "a fellow space traveler" in an
article on CNN.
Astronaut Terry W. Virts, traveling in orbit, tweeted a photo of him flashing the Vulcan greeting sign in front of a window of his spacecraft, with Nimoy's hometown of Boston seen far below,
NASA notes.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.