An Open Letter to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden

Concerned About NASA ^ | 7/26/10 | Concerned About NASA

[Concerned_About_NASA_2010]

An Open Letter to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden July 26, 2010

Dear Administrator Bolden:

Congress has recently voted on legislation which will put NASA on a sensible path, which Congress, the White House and NASA can all use so the space agency can move beyond its current malaise to a bright future.

It’s quite clear to everyone the primary cause of this malaise is your Deputy, Lori Garver.

Now that Congress has spoken it’s time for you to take action and remove Ms. Garver. It’s time for you to have a heart to heart, one on one, with President Obama and tell him why she needs to go.

At the same time, take the opportunity to request that the President remove the co-architects of the disastrous FY 2011 budget and plan, Jim Kohlenberger of OSTP and Paul Shawcross of OMB.

Beth Robinson, NASA CFO, has been an active participant in the plan and its execution, especially the effort to reduce in size and scope critical space exploration contracts, clearly going against the will of Congress, if not the letter of the law. Ms. Robinson should be reassigned.

Everyone knows when you were offered the job as Administrator you had no choice in terms of picking a Deputy, you were assigned Ms. Garver. The ill conceived plan she and her allies developed, which you were not read-in on until the last minute before budget release in February, infuriated Congress.

Ms. Garver chose to leak the plan to her friends in the press before allowing you to pre-brief NASA’s best allies in Congress. Democrats in particular were offended. The Garver “plan” was so ill conceived and communicated Congress responded with a fury which NASA had never even remotely experienced before.

Fortunately for the country, Congress has provided the leadership which was so sorely lacking in the Garver initiative. There is one simple question for you, Mr. Administrator. Isn’t it time to remove Ms. Garver? Isn’t it time to remove the chief instigator for this mess? Isn’t it time to reset relations with Congress? There is no better single step you can take to send a very clear signal to Congress it’s a new dawn by removing Ms. Garver, and respectfully requesting President Obama do the same with Mr. Kohlenberger and Mr. Shawcross.

You deserve a Deputy you can trust and count on to ensure NASA and the United States stay at the forefront of Space Exploration.

Sincerely, Concerned for NASA

[Army Air Corps]

Ping.

[anymouse]

I don’t know who you are, but I like the way you think. You are absolutely correct to pin the current problems at NASA on Garver*. It’s not so much that she is so devious (although she is), but that she is flat out incompetent. I’m sure it gauls Bolden to take his marching orders through such an inferior, but as long as Obama and the Democrats in Congress are emboldened to use NASA as a tool of social experimentation and environmental boondoggles, he has no choice. I don’t really expect Bolden to “throw Garver under the bus,” but I’m glad you are pointing out why he should.

* As you noted Gaver was put in place by Obama’s liberal Democrat cronies, so the blame really rests on Obama, even if he didn’t pick her.

[saundby]

Charles got the deal he signed up for. Lori was part of the package. There’s no room for him to go back and complain now. If he did, he’d be at more risk than she would be. Can you say “Administrator Garver”?

Bolden had high hopes once, but he’s sold his inheritance for a mess of pottage. Too late to go back and complain now.

The real problem starts with the boss, and while Garver has had a hand in things, Bolden has, too. At the very least, he didn’t have to stump for something he didn’t believe in—the door was standing right there all the time. He chose not to use it, his only real means of protest.

The letter needs to be written to the voters, not to a man who’s doing the job he was hired to do.

[Gene Eric]

>> NASA can all use so the space agency can move beyond its current malaise to a bright future.

It is sheer lunacy to impede NASA’s sunny future.