A little background via Daily Cos:
Jane is apparently the child of Bush loyalist parents who were big names on the Arkansas GOP scene. After graduating college in 2004, she has had a distinguished "career" working for the White House since way back in 2005, starting as a lowly staff assistant and working her way up the ladder until sometime later in 2005 when she become Associate Director of Political Affairs under Karl Rove where she remained until last week when she was appointed to NASA.
According to the Daily Kos article, under Rove, "Jane was involved in the US Attorney removal scandal, and is on the record (page 31) as such. And Jane had one of those infamous gwb43.com secret e-mail addresses. Jane and Monica Goodling discussed Goodling's "research" on people."
I have to agree with NASAWatch on this one:
First NASA gets George Deutsch, another young political appointee. We all remember what he did. Then FEMA's former Deputy Director Patrick Rhode (a pal of Michael Brown's) is given a hiding place at NASA. Now, an overtly political White House staffer (it was her job to be overtly political) who is under at least one cloud with regard to ethics - suddenly lands at NASA where she gets a $60,000-plus pay raise.
Is NASA turning to a dumping ground for young Bush loyalists of questionable capability? Based on her political shenanigans at the White House, what could she possibly bring of value to NASA? Right now NASA needs to be steering clear of politics and focusing on the tasks at hand. Bringing young political hacks to NASA will only create problems.
2 comments:
Any commentary on Rick Gilbrecht, head of Stennis, taking over AA for ESMD? Is he a friend of science or more aligned with the "big stick" human exploration side?
Hi Sarah,
This not strictly relevant to your post, but thought you might find it amusing.
From Science, Volume 317, Number 5838, Issue of 03 August 2007, page 579:
"THEY SAID IT
"This computer, although assigned to me, was being used on board the International Space Station. I was informed that it was tossed overboard to be burned up in the atmosphere when it failed."
--A NASA employee's explanation for the loss of a laptop, recorded in a recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office documenting equipment losses of more than $94 million over the past 10 years by the agency."
The crackdown is coming!
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