The Griffin Footbullet: Rocket Science at Its Finest
Wow, talk about emasculating and meddlesome! This wife makes Dagwood’s Blondie and Bewitched’s Samantha Stevens look laudenum-dosed by their husbands’ work. On Christmas Eve, Rebecca Griffin sent out an email asking friends to sign a petition going asking that her husband keep his job now that a new boss was coming in:
Folks,
Yes, once again I am embarrassing my husband by reaching out to our friends and "imposing" upon them. Sigh, what’s new? The number 1 fan is a role I have earned, because I know how hard my husband works…If you are not interested, please delete this email and accept my apologies for bothering you. If you are interested, just log in to the web site shown below. And, if this is inappropriate, I’m sorry.
Merry Christmas, Becky.
Um, eeeuwww, on just so many levels: The faux self-abnigation, the pseudo-sympathy seeking, the manipulation, the utter wrongness on so many levels. Now maybe if her boss was named Ebeneezer and they had a Tiny Tim at home—naw, the three ghosts didn’t need no stinkin’ email or petition.
But Rebecca’s husband’s new boss is PEBO, President-Elect Barack Obama and her husband is NASA Administrator Michael Griffin. The good wife says she
couldn’t think of an easier or better way to let you know about this true "grass roots" endeavor that was set up by former astronauts to encourage the incoming Obama administration to consider keeping Mike Griffin on as NASA Administrator.
The petition drive was organized by Scott "Doc" Horowitz who has been maintaining the online campaign and eliminating negative comments about Mike that have appeared on the Keep Mike petition. Once a petition like that hits the interwebs, well scientists are very passionate. "Keep Mike" has several hundred people’s signatures, including that of astronaut Mike Fincke who e-mailed his signature from the international space station.
Horowitz’s petition calls Griffin:
one of the most technically and managerially competent administrators in NASA’s history…true rocket scientist and systems engineer and gifted administrator—is uniquely qualified to take NASA into the next era of space exploration.
Mike has been working hard to keep his GWB appointed gig. He had NASA print and bind at the agency’s expense 2,500 copies of his speeches at a cost of $57,000 and then used priority mail to make sure PEBO got one. No other past adminstrator has done that, and considering NASA, and the country, is sorta cash strapped right now, maybe that wasn’t the best move to impress the P-E.
A few people don’t seem to share Rebecca, Scott and Mike’s view that Mike should keep his job. The vocal ones started their their own Remove Mike petition, pointing out that he’s cost the agency and tax papers a lot more than just his vanity press book. The anti-Mike petition has just a few dozen signatures, mostly anonymous with some nasty comments, some criticizing the new space vehicle design.
But most damning are the reports in the Orlando Sentinel of Griffin’s non-coopertation with Obama’s transition team. He reportedly told Lori Garver, a former NASA associate administrator, that she is “not qualified” to judge his rocket program and then:
a red-faced Griffin demanded to speak directly to Obama, according to four witnesses.
Maybe Former NASA Deputy Administrator Hans Mark, who recommended Griffin to the Bush administration, said Griffin and his friends are handling this wrong:
"Mike ought to play it the way (retained Defense Secretary) Bob Gates is playing it, which is to shut up," Mark said.
“To the Moon, Alice. To the Moon!”