Campaign '08, Congress, NASA

Even in space, politics makes for strange bedfellows

As the New York Times notes, “It’s not every day that the head of a federal agency in a Republican administration during an election year writes a glowing thank-you note to the Democratic candidate for president.” But that was the case last week, when NASA administrator Mike Griffin wrote a letter to Sen. Barack Obama saying he was “deeply grateful to you, personally” for helping get the INKSNA extension through Congress last month (the full memo is available here).

Griffin is referring to a letter Sen. Obama sent to the Democratic leadership in the House and Senate, specifically requesting an INSKNA extension “so we keep that option open for allowing U.S. astronauts to utilize the ISS beyond 2011.” (The letter also called for Congress to “demand” that NASA take no steps to prevent extending the life of the shuttle after 2010 and add extra money for NASA to support the additional shuttle flight in the NASA authorization bill that Congress approved.) In the Times, Sen. Bill Nelson, who has become something of an Obama campaign surrogate on space issues, claimed that Obama’s letter “changed the game” and got the INKSNA waiver extension included in the continuing resolution bill Congress passed several days later.

On a related note, the waiver extension that was approved was more expansive than an earlier separate bill. The extension passed into law allows for both Progress and Soyuz purchases until July 2016; the earlier legislation would have permitted on Soyuz purchases, and only until Orion or a commercial vehicle becomes available. Although NASA got more authority than requested, the agency said it still plans to stop Progress purchases after 2011 and rely on commercial vehicles under development to ferry cargo to the station. However, new NASA leadership would have the ability to change their minds on that, although in the Space News article linked to above, Elon Musk of SpaceX—who would presumably lose out if NASA decided to keep buying Progress spacecraft for some reason—didn’t sound worried. “Neither [U.S. political party] likes sending money overseas if there’s a U.S. supplier,” he said.

9 comments to Even in space, politics makes for strange bedfellows

  • Al Fansome

    I too thought this was strange. I admit that I immediately started thinking what the NY Times was thinking:

    http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/07/obama-gets-a-thank-you-from-nasa/
    … was Dr. Griffin trying to ensure that at least one employee of the space agency would remain in his job in January?

    Considering that Griffin is not only a Republican, and that Obama is committed to change … but when you add in that Griffin publicly stated that although global warming exists that he is skeptical that global warming is a problem that we need to solve ….

    I have to think his chances of staying on in an Obama administration are below “slim” and quite close to “none”.

    – Al

  • I can’t say too much, since I was told some stuff in confidence, but lets just say that I am concerned that it might actually happen.

  • Aremis Asling

    Could it be, possibly, that in the midst of partisanism and devisiveness, Griffin may actually be thankful for the assistance? I’m usually right on board with the cynics, but as the head of NASA Griffin was likely very happy to have options on the table. It’s a luxury not often afforded NASA from congress these days. If Obama was, indeed, a major actor on the bill, I’d be rateful to him as well.

    Aremis

  • As usual, some context would be a big help to figure out whether this is actually reportable, but I’ve given up on most news sources for providing any sort of context. Thanks Jeff, for pointing out the letter that Obama wrote in support of the waiver, but since that letter isn’t mentioned in the “Thank you” letter, it’s unclear that this is anything more than a generic note generated by NASA’s Legislative Liaison group for Mike’s signature.

  • Al Fansome

    AREMIS: Could it be, possibly, that in the midst of partisanism and devisiveness, Griffin may actually be thankful for the assistance?

    I am sure Griffin is thankful and grateful to Obama. But a written letter that twice used the word “leadership”, plus the timing, just *seemed* odd. It is easy to leap to the conclusion that Griffin has another agenda.

    Meanwhile, Florida Today has disclosed here:

    http://www.floridatoday.com/content/blogs/space/2008/10/griffin-thanks-obama-for-waiver-support.shtml

    that the same letter was sent to “more than 30 congressional legislators”.

    Whatever the case, I think the probability of Griffin staying on at NASA in an Obama administration is essentially zero. Griffin basically said on NPR that he did not think global warming was a problem.

    Now, intellectually Griffin’s personal opinion is potentially defensible if Griffin’s real point was that we have more important problems that are higher priorities for our scarce dollars. But Dr. Griffin works for the White House, and the American people, and blew it by sharing his personal opinion.

    More importantly, Griffin’s opinion happens to be 100% contrary to Obama’s views, and to Obama’s commitment to change.

    In addition, Obama has repeatedly explicitly criticized McCain for McCain’s denials that we have economic problems. Obama’s criticism was along the lines of “If you don’t believe that we have economic problems, then how can you be part of the solution?”

    Thus, it is totally predictable that people like James Hansen will soon be saying “Dr. Griffin, if you don’t believe that global warming is a problem, then how can you be part of the solution?”

    FWIW,

    – Al

    “Politics is not rocket science, which is why rocket scientists do not understand politics.”

  • Al,

    Who do you think is likely to be NASA admin, in the event of an Obama administration? I know the common refrain is Lori Garver, but I’ve heard a rumor that she has no desire to be NASA administrator

  • Al Fansome

    I have no idea. I am guessing that Senator Obama has not thought much about this issue in the last 18 months. Since choosing NASA Administrator generally comes later, there usually is not a rush. (Everybody wants him to figure out right now who will be his Treasury Secretary.)

    Most of the time, the person eventually selected for NASA Administrator is somebody that nobody had predicted a few months before. Mike Griffin was an exception to this rule (as everybody knew he was lobbying via his Mars Society study/report) the word leaked out a little while before it became public.

    BTW, if Garver does not want the Administrator job, based on her performance to date, she would make a very good Executive Secretary of the National Aeronautics and Space Council.

    FWIW,

    – Al

  • […] Even in space, politics makes for strange bedfellows – Space Politics […]

  • […] to the Iran, North Korea, Syria Nonproliferation Act (INKSNA), actions that eventually included a letter from the NASA administrator at the time to a certain Illinois senator thanking him for his work supporting the waiver extension, even though that senator was spending […]

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