Rocket Scientist

/Steps on soapbox

So, once again, I’m going to do what I very rarely do and delve into politics.  Believe me, this is not my normal role.  Not to give an opinion, so much, but to gauge your reaction.  You see, there’s a blog I check out most days I’m at work.  It’s not a favorite of mine, thought I have anything against Keith Cowling who runs it but because I think he considers himself a journalist and I find him a wee bit more biased (on a number of topics) than I enjoy.  And because he tends to focus on the sensationalist.  For most space news, I go to spacedaily.com .  However, Cowling does keep his ear to the ground (often finding out things that are of interest to us at NASA before we do) and I can appreciate he isn’t afraid to state his mind.

However, since I got back, I’ve been reading about something that is really Keith’s forte: the NASA administrator and his future.  Now, I don’t think it’s my place to tell you what I think of the job Griffin’s done, whether I thought he was an undervalued miracle worker or a egotistic despot or the whole gamut of possibilities in between.  So I won’t.

There was some earlier discussion (in this same blog) about some differences between Griffin and Obama’s transition team (and, no, I have no idea of their validity nor do I care.  I hate politics).  However, the situation has taken on an odd, somewhat desperate cast.  According to this entry , Scott Horowitz has put up a petition to keep Mike Griffin in his job.  Now, whether I, personally, think this is tacky or not, I can’t help but wonder about the impact of this given that any noncomplimentary comment is deleted but the commentor’s name remains (I wonder if the commentors knew that at the time).  Now, if one is presenting a petition stating X number of people really think Y, don’t you think it negates the impact if you had to delete comments of signees that disagreed with Y (or at least voiced reservations)?  Of course, a counter petition also sprang up (this time anonymously) to get rid of Griffin and the owner of that is doing the same delete unwanted comments but keeping signees.  Then, Griffin’s wife apparently sent out an email requesting support for the petition and help for him to retain his job - which the news agencies grabbed hold of and having a heyday with.

*Sigh*

Am I hopeless naive to think a job with as much importance and that requires so much technical and political expertise as NASA administrator be based on merit alone?  That one’s record in the job, how well one performed the myriad impossible tasks that face a NASA administrator, be the one and only gauge necessary to retain or lose a job?

I’m sure many people have a strong opinion on Griffin here.  But, whatever it may be, I can’t help but be grieved at how all this hoopla reflects on NASA.  We’ve had enough headaches and bad press, thank you.

There are dedicated and serious people who work here, trying to do the best for this country.  I think it’s a great pity that sideshows like this and Lisa Nowak’s unfortunate escapade are what people remember rather than the work we do.

/Steps off soapbox

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