REPORT: new NASA head -- Dan Crippen, economist and public health systems expert

In sci.space.policy Herb Schaltegger wrote:
In article ,

Andrew Gray wrote:

Update: White House sources now say that there are no current plans to
make an announcement about the NASA Administrator nominee tomorrow.
Moreover, the traditional pre-announcement briefings on the Hill have
not happened yet.
More media-induced stray voltage? Sure sounds like it. Stay tuned.

Stuff like this is rarely "media-induced" despite the tendency to
blame "the media" for everything. Sounds MUCH more like classic trial
balloon to me.

This administration doesn't do trial balloons, at least not in the classic
sense. It's much more likely to be a leak from a low-level source opposed
to the nomination who is trying to kill it than a trial balloon. Either
that, or a journalist talking out of his posterior (my guess).

Mike

-----
Michael Kent Apple II Forever!!
St. Peters, MO

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In article ,
(Michael Kent) wrote:

Update: White House sources now say that there are no current plans to
make an announcement about the NASA Administrator nominee tomorrow.
Moreover, the traditional pre-announcement briefings on the Hill have
not happened yet.
More media-induced stray voltage? Sure sounds like it. Stay tuned.

Stuff like this is rarely "media-induced" despite the tendency to
blame "the media" for everything. Sounds MUCH more like classic trial
balloon to me.

According to a later NASAWatch post, the rumoring was caused when a reporter
heard that it might be Crippen and started calling people on Capitol Hill,
who started calling other people, and some of them called NASAWatch to ask
if Cowing had heard anything.

You will note, however, that NASAWatch was scolding this "unnamed reporter"
for spreading rumors when the reality was that NASAWatch probably did more
to spread the rumor than anybody else. Cowing tends to be hypocritical,
wagging his finger at people for doing the exact same things that he does on
his website.


This administration doesn't do trial balloons, at least not in the classic
sense. It's much more likely to be a leak from a low-level source opposed
to the nomination who is trying to kill it than a trial balloon. Either
that, or a journalist talking out of his posterior (my guess).

Every administration does trial balloons.

However, it is unlikely that this was one of them. O'Keefe reportedly gave
the White House three names of suggested replacements for him, one of whom
was an "insider," one an "outsider," and one of whom was an industry person.

Dan Crippen is a longtime friend of O'Keefe and since Crippen left the
Congressional Budget Office, he has served on several NASA advisory
committees. I assume that Crippen was the "outsider" name that O'Keefe gave
the White House.

However, Crippen made some enemies in the Republican Senate when he was with
the Congressional Budget Office, and they might have told the White House
that they don't want Crippen as administrator. Crippen also has not run a
large organization nor a technical organization.




Elden

Elden wrote:
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...snip....

You will note, however, that NASAWatch was scolding this "unnamed reporter"
for spreading rumors when the reality was that NASAWatch probably did more
to spread the rumor than anybody else. Cowing tends to be hypocritical,
wagging his finger at people for doing the exact same things that he does on
his website.


He seems to live, eat, breath, sleep this stuff.....and has a permanent
bee in his bonnet against NASA administration, etc. I always get
skeptical when I encounter a zealot like that. What's the real story
here ? What's in it for him ? No doubt a smart guy, but so much
negative energy. How does his wife & family put up with it ? Does
anyone really care ***that*** much about some typo on a NASA website
(for example) ?

To each his own, for sure, but you gotta wonder.....

NoSpam writes:

To each his own, for sure, but you gotta wonder.....

I have to agree. We almost need a NASAwatchwatch.

--
J. Porter Clark

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In article ,
NoSpam wrote:

here ? What's in it for him ?

Well, recently he was getting special access to the NASA Administrator.
You'll note that in the past couple of years he has not said anything
negative about O'Keefe on his website. Compare that to his attitude toward
Dan Goldin. Clearly he's in the tank.





Elden

He seems to live, eat, breath, sleep this stuff.....and has a
permanent bee in his bonnet against NASA administration, etc. I
always get skeptical when I encounter a zealot like that. What's the
real story here ? What's in it for him ?

As I understand it, the bee was placed in the bonnet when Dan Goldin
shut down the Space Station office in Reston, VA where Cowing
worked. I don't have a strong opinion one way or the other about
whether that Reston office was a Good Thing or a Bad Thing for the
station program, but Cowing sure does. (To really get into this would
require a more detailed discussion of HQ, JSC, the various contracts
for station work, and the program's organization in the 1990's - see
for example http://www.abo.fi/~mlindroo/Station/Slides/sld061.htm for
at least a mention of the decision to close Reston).

Like any source, Cowing has biases, but I think it is a very good
thing that he's doing what he's doing. I wish we had more
"journalism" like this.

On 28 Feb 2005 11:15:57 -0500, in a place far, far away, Jim Kingdon
made the phosphor on my monitor glow in such a way
as to indicate that:

Like any source, Cowing has biases, but I think it is a very good
thing that he's doing what he's doing. I wish we had more
"journalism" like this.

Yes, he does manage to cover things that few other journalists are
interested in, but are interesting to the space community.