Don’t look up now, but there could be an asteroid plunging through space aimed directly toward your head. Most likely, though, there’s not.

There probably is, however, a big near-earth asteroid somewhere out in space that will hit the earth sometime and cause a lot of trouble. It could strike this afternoon. It could strike one hundred million years from now.

Of course, it might not ever strike at all. Maybe we could see it coming and stop it from hitting us. That’s the hope of California Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, who has focused much of his political energy over the last few years on the issue of dealing with near-earth asteroids.

Back in 2004, Representative Rohrabacher introduced legislation that would have established a system to identify and track near-earth asteroids. In 2005, Rohrabacher introduced another bill that would have done the same thing. Six months ago, Rohrabacher introduced yet another bill that would support a governmental effort to establish procedures for intercepting near-earth asteroids or mitigating the effects of their impact on our planet.

Astronomers advise that the task of preventing a large asteroid from hitting the earth would be very technically difficult. Such an effort would require precision, planning, and disciplined execution in order to succeed.

Dana Rohrabacher wants to take the lead in Congress in establishing an anti-asteroid effort that could work, but he can’t even seem to manage the legislative engineering necessary to gain support for his bills in Congress. The 2004 legislation had no co-sponsors. The 2005 legislation had only two co-sponsors. The 2007 legislation has no co-sponsors. The first two bills died in committee, even though Rohrabacher’s Republican Party was in control of Congress at time. The latest anti-asteroid legislation from Rohrabacher seems set to meet the same fate.

Dana Rohrabacher seems to lack the ability to work with other members of the U.S. House of Representatives in order to get his bills serious consideration. Whether they support anti-asteroid systems or not, Rohrabacher’s constituents should be concerned with his problem getting anything accomplished in Congress.

This year, there are two Democrats, two alternative party candidates, and even another Republican lined up to challenge Dana Rohrabacher for his seat in Congress. There’s good reason for that. Congressman Rohrabacher may have his eyes set on big goals, but he can’t seem to keep his fit from tripping over little molehills.