NASA chief’s wife campaigning for him

WASHINGTON – Late on Christmas Eve, one last wish was sent, by e-mail: Please let NASA Administrator Michael Griffin keep his job. It was from his wife.

Rebecca Griffin, who works in marketing, sent her message with the subject line “Campaign for Mike” to friends and family. It asked them to sign an online petition to President-elect Barack Obama “to consider keeping Mike Griffin on as NASA Administrator.”

She wrote, “Yes, once again I am embarrassing my husband by reaching out to our friends and ‘imposing’ on them. … And if this is inappropriate, I’m sorry.”

The petition drive, which said the President George W. Bush appointee “has brought a sense of order and purpose to the U.S. space agency,” was organized by Scott “Doc” Horowitz, of Park City, Utah, an ex-astronaut and former NASA associate administrator.

A cash-strapped NASA last week also sent – by priority mail costing $6.75 a package – copies of a new NASA book called “Leadership in Space: Selected Speeches of NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, May 2005-October 2008.”

And just before the presidential election, Griffin sent a letter to Obama saying, “I am deeply grateful to you, personally, for your leadership” on the vote to allow NASA to use Russian spaceships.

Efforts by those close to Griffin lobbying on his behalf are unusually bold, even for ego-heavy Washington. Past efforts on behalf of job hopefuls have been more behind-the-scenes so plausible deniability can be maintained.

“It sounds like the only thing left is to stencil Mike Griffin on the side of the shuttle,” joked Paul Light, a professor of public policy and a presidential transition expert at New York University. “I’ve never heard of a campaign to keep one’s job that goes beyond the edge of private discussion. …  Maybe he should be texting next.”

David Goldston, a former chief of staff for the House Science Committee and a lecturer on science policy at Harvard University, said, “This kind of public campaigning to keep a job is unusual and usually tends to backfire in new administrations.”

Griffin’s press secretary, David Mould, said Griffin is not campaigning to keep his job and figures that Obama will name a new NASA chief. However, Griffin would be “honored” to be asked to stay on the job.

“A lot of people seem to like and support Mike and think he’s doing a good job,” Mould said. He said he couldn’t speak for the administrator’s wife and she did not answer an e-mail from the Associated Press.

As for Griffin’s book of speeches, it was a natural for the NASA history office and coincides with the end of the presidential term, Mould said. NASA printed 2,500 books at a cost of $57,000 with the ability to produce more, NASA spokeswoman Sonja Alexander said.

NASA did not publish a book of collected speeches for Griffin’s two predecessors, said spokeswoman Ashley Edwards. The agency did produce a compact disc of speeches by Dan Goldin, NASA’s longest-serving boss, just before he left in 2001.

Griffin, a rocket scientist who holds seven degrees, has been on the job since 2005.

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.