BEFORE he uttered the immortal words “There are Klingons in the White House!” on the floor of Congress on Jan. 10, Rep. David Wu (D-Oregon) had kept his profile low and his Trek obsession in check (or so we thought). In his five terms in Congress, he had served on various committees having to do with space and science and was perhaps best known as the first Chinese American elected to the House of Representatives (he was born in Taiwan to Chinese parents). But the Inner Dork could not be contained.

When pushed one parsec too far by Bush’s “troop surge” plan for Iraq, David Wu boldly went where no congressman had gone before—he reached far into the fictional 23rd century for the precise terms that would explain the warmongering behavior of the Bush administration. Relying on the tenets of his faith (as revealed to the Prophet Gene Rodenberry), he unleashed an oratory burst that’s still reverberating across the Alpha Quadrant.

It began with the word “Vulcan” (as in “Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush’s War Cabinet”). Or rather, it began with a conflation of that reference with one from “Star Trek” mythology. Makes perfect sense to us!

Wu argued that if Bush & Co. were trying to be Vulcans, they were doing a terrible job. Far from being ultra-rational, they were acting like the impulsive warriors of the Klingon Empire. As in “Don’t let faux Klingons send real Americans to war!” Reality-based metaphors be damned!

Almost immediately, in every 21st-century communications medium, Wu was ridiculed as an idiot by some and an overgrown dork by most. “It might sound silly to people who loathe ‘Star Trek’ or are indifferent to it,” as Judith Barad, author of the book “The Ethics of Star Trek,” told The Oregonian. “But I do think science fiction is a good way for society to get a better perspective and to learn what to do in a moral predicament.”

Which is why the Honorable David Wu from the Great State of Oregon is a hero to us. Not only does he bear a striking resemblance to Voyager’s Ensign Harry Kim, he is a constellation-class nerd. A visionary who believes that sci-fi, pop culture and politics exist along the same time-space continuum.

But that doesn’t mean he’s right on this particular point. In fact, he got it mostly wrong for the following reasons:

1) Leonard Nimoy said so on “The Daily Show.”

2) If the Americans (or at least the Americans in charge) are acting like swaggering Klingons, then how does the rest of the analogy play out? Who is the Federation? Certainly not the European Union of suck-ups. China is not strong enough to provide the counter-balance (yet) and Putin’s Russia is still in the rebuilding phase from the disastrous Yeltsin fire sale years. Duh!

3) The original “Star Trek” reflected the Cold War circumstances of the time and doesn’t really correspond to the world today. In other words, Congressman Wu picked the wrong sci-fi analogy. The new “Battlestar Galactica” is a much better conceptual fit. Right off the bat, it is about a pluralistic human society besieged by monotheistic extremists. An enemy that the humans themselves literally created.

Note to Congressman Wu: For frack’s sake, don’t miss the third season of “Battlestar Galactica,” Sundays at 10 on the Sci Fi Channel. •