Space and politics
Unfortunately, despite how we may feel on this board, space issues probably rank pretty low on the priority list for both Republican and Democratic politicians. I'm actually surprised that Bush pushed for this right now, but I don't think many people realize that Bush does things that he thinks are a good idea regardless of the polls and election issues (the immigration thing falls into this category. Bush was friendly to Mexico on this issue back when he was governor, too). Whether or not they actually are good ideas is a separate argument.