Brian Berger has some names.
Pam Melroy would be the best choice, as far as I’m concerned, but Patti or Rich would be fine as well. I hope that it’s not Zulkoski.
[Update a while later]
Brian has an exit interview with Lori.
31 thoughts on “Potential Garver Replacements”
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Given the current Congressional climate will any one recommended by President Obama be approved?
The Senate was run by Democrats, last time I checked.
That is why I said Congressional Climate. Or have you forgotten how the Republicans keep filibustering President Obama’s appointments…
The Republicans are not going to filibuster a NASA Deputy Administrator. No one cares, except a senator or two. It’s kind of stupid to think that they would.
Once again you have a naive belief that space is somehow different. Its not about space, its about opposing President Obama. It doesn’t matter what the position is, if President Obama nominates someone they will oppose it.
And you have an idiotic belief that the Republicans in the Senate are going to filibuster a NASA Deputy Administrator.
Just a thought, Thomas: the President could consider not nominating a partisan hack. That would probably go a long way towards the Republicans not trying to block the nomination.
Except at this point the Republicans have decided anyone he nominates is a political hack by definition…
Well, if it walks like a duck.
Except at this point the Republicans have decided anyone he nominates is a political hack by definition…
Yet another politically clueless comment. The Republicans are stupid, but not as stupid as you think they are, and (sadly) not as politically stupid as you demonstrate yourself to be in this comment thread.
“Except at this point the Republicans have decided anyone he nominates is a political hack by definition…”
Thomas, you do know that in this day and age it’s possible to look these things up in just a few seconds, don’t you?
Even looking at judicial appointments, which are generally more controversial than cabinet nominations…
Since taking office, Obama has had two Supreme Court justices, 38 appeals court justices, and 160 district court judges confirmed by the Senate (an even 200). The most recent one was just last week, when Raymond T. Chen was confirmed to the federal appeals court on 01 August 2013 by a vote of 97-0.
But those Republicans are filibustering everyone!
Don’t be mean, and try to confuse Thomas with reality.
Mike,
Actually you need to follow the news more. They only approved it after Senator Reid threaten to use the “nuclear option” if they didn’t start voting on nominations…
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jul/23/nuclear-option-on-filibusters-a-possibility-down-t/?page=all
‘Nuclear option’ on filibusters a possibility down the road, Reid says
Also I note you refer to the start of the Obama Administration in 2009. But of course you have for the numbers to work.
If you were current on the news you would know the strategy to block all of President Obama’s nominations started in 2011 and accelerated after the last election…
Harry Reid threatened to use the “nuclear option” for a guy that received a 97-0 confirmation vote?
I think Matula needs to push away from the newspapers, get out more, and relax. He seems paranoid and is now ranting like an idiot.
Leland,
I assume you are referring to the new energy secretary? Clearing you didn’t read about the issue Senator Graham had about getting more funds for South Carolina…
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/300237-senate-votes-x-x-to-confirm-moniz-to-lead-department-of-energy
[[[Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) had been holding up a vote over his concerns about federal management of a program in his state to transform weapons-grade plutonium into fuel. But he removed that hold last week.
“I put a hold on Dr. Moniz not because of anything to do with him. He’s a wonderful fellow,” Graham said ahead of the vote. “The reason we put a hold on his nomination was to get attention.”]]]
Typical horse trading, buying off a key senator by giving them more pork – I mean jobs – in his state…. Something all Congress Critters respect and approve of 🙂
http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/metro/2013-04-15/budget-details-cast-more-mox-doubts
Budget casts MOX doubts
By Rob Pavey Staff Writer
Monday, April 15, 2013 3:56 PM
[[[In a brief summary shared last week, the administration slashed $132.7 million, or 29.3 percent, from the project’s 2014 construction budget, citing rising costs that may have rendered the plant “unaffordable.”]]]
[[[The plant, designed to dispose of surplus plutonium by blending it into commercial nuclear fuel, has become increasingly expensive, with construction costs recently revised from from $4.9 billion to $7.7 billion.]]]
I wonder what pork the President will need to pay to buy Republican support for a NASA Deputy Administrator? Maybe he will agree to full funding for the SLS and throw commercial crew under the bus… But time will tell…
Matula, your assumption is wrong. I, like Mike, was using data you were ignoring. If the use of “the “nuclear option” if they didn’t start voting on nominations…” was necessary, it seems voting began Earnest Moniz and Richard Chen were confirmed with a 97-0 vote. So your stories from April and May are a bit dated.
Also, the TEA party, which you vilify, hates Lindsey Graham. So using the logic you employfor odd assumptions, should we consider you a TEA party supporter now? Do you see now just how ignorant and bitter you come across?
Leland,
What data? I didn’t see any links, just vague references. And in terms of being bitter and ignorant it appears its the Tea Party that seems to hate just about everyone now – so its not surprising they are throwing Senator Lindsey under the bus. I wonder how many more Republican senate seats will be lost because of them.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/08/john-cornyn-louie-gohmert_n_3726560.html
And Now John Cornyn Is Somehow Not Conservative Enough For The Tea Party
Jason Linkins
Posted: 08/08/2013 1:09 pm EDT | Updated: 08/08/2013 5:02 pm EDT
“Also I note you refer to the start of the Obama Administration in 2009. But of course you have for the numbers to work.”
Remember what I said about being able to look this up in just a few seconds?
Obama had 26 of his 200 judicial confirmations occur in 2013, or 13% of the total.
Seven of Obama’s 55 months in office have been in 2013, or 13% of the total.
Is this really that challenging for you, or have you given up all qualms about being a blind partisan hack?
What data?
As Mike asked: Is this really that challenging for you, or have you given up all qualms about being a blind partisan hack?
Typical – unable to provide evidence you result to name calling.
There were any number of Obama nominees that were not filibustered. The notion that everything faces a filibuster is ridiculous. Filibuster judicial appointments of people to the left of Obama, sure. There is a political fight there.
Filibuster the replacement of some lady at NASA no one has heard about by some other person no one has heard about? Na, there is no political fight there.
And as Rick C points out, there is more than one side in the filibuster debate. Part of it is surely Republican desire to make things tough on Obama but then there is the nature of Obama’s appointees. Obama would face less filibusters if he didn’t insist on installing leftist radicals throughout the highest levels of government.
Wodun,
It will be interesting to see if that is the case, especially given the current partisan battle over the NASA budget.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/07/31/nasa-funding-battle-congress/2602319/
Harry Reid has been threatening the nuclear option since Obama was elected. Nothing new there.
No one is arguing that Republicans haven’t been filibustering but that they wont filibuster the nominee to this particular position. The position doesn’t have the status to merit a filibuster not related to the person or the position. The position is not overtly political and whomever is nominated is not likely to threaten the political power of Republicans like one of Obama’s judges would.
Wodun,
It really depends on how much particular Senators want SLS and want to get rid of commercial crew as a competitor. It only takes one or two to make it an issue and a bargaining chip for supporting other senators on other issues.
Al Gore would be an obvious choice, but the position is probably beneath him. Obama could go with Lisa Jackson, his former EPA head, or climate quack James Hansen, who has a lot of experience at NASA. Other options are Bill Nye, Tom Hanks, or James Cameron.
Isn’t appointing a new Deputy just re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic? Titanic NASA, too big to fail, has already hit the iceberg, back in the 70s. Bailing for another decade without changing course won’t keep it from sinking.
NASA is broken, and has been broken for a very long time. You could appoint Jesus Christ as Deputy Administrator and it wouldn’t change the fact that NASA needs reorganization and downsizing, and financial realities dictate that the rest of the federal government needs that too.
NASA wears too many hats: it is the cutting-edge research agency; it is the day-to-day space operations agency; it is the de facto arbiter of space industry regulations due to its dominance over the industry. It should only be the cutting edge, and commensurately one tenth its current size and budget. The spaceflight regulation regime should be handled by the FAA or a new Federal Space Administration, at one percent of NASA’s current size and budget. And for day-to-day ops, there should be a Space Guard, again with one-tenth NASA’s current size and budget.
And what about all those projects in the pipeline, to an asteroid within 15 years or Mars eventually? Private industry. Let the revamped NASA retire the risk on technology, let the Space Guard maintain launch and tracking facilities, let private companies do the exploration under FSA regulation. Make it so that NASA isn’t going to the moon itself but instead making it possible for National Geographic to send a photographer.
Ed,
NASA completed its Mission when the last Apollo mission returned to Earth. Everything since has been “busy” work to keep the standing army busy and the pork flowing to the Congressional Districts. And it’s culture as “the space agency” has become too entrenched to fix by merely reorganizing it. It needs to be closed down. Its perceived monopoly of space policy and activity needs to end.
If Congress feels space science is important they could setup a new directorate under the NSF with a separate budget of $2 billion a year. Without the overhead of the NASA centers that would go a lot further than it does now and provide an incentive for lowering the cost of robotic missions, something now missing at NASA.
Similarly Earth science could be moved to NOAA.
If Congress feels there is a need for commercial aerospace technology research they could set up a small office in the Department of Transportation and give them Dryden, or just fund DARPA space efforts more since they have been doing some good stuff in that area.
The ISS could be given to the Department of Energy and contracted out to be run as a “National Laboratory” much like Sandia or other laboratories. If the winning contractor wants to buy seats from American providers rather than Soyuz it would be their call, and it would then be truly commercial instead of just calling NASA’s new government contractor model “commercial” when it is just a return to the pre-War World II government contractor model of fix priced milestone contracting.
And as for all the NASA Centers, close them and sell them off. Most are in prime locations and once the toxics are cleaned up and the building bulldozed will bring prime value as commercial real estate…
Unfortunately, Thomas, your plan and mine have two things in common: both make sense, and neither will be implemented.
True, but its good to keep reminding folks that NASA is the barrier, not the solution, to space settlement.
“On Sept. 9 she’s due to start a new job: general manager of the Air Line Pilots Association, a labor union representing more than 50,000 commercial pilots in the United States and Canada. ”
Lost pretty much all the respect I had for her. She had a chance to write her own ticket but she chose to be a union agitator. Sad.
Wodun,
But it makes sense if she is positioning herself for a role in the 2016 election. Having union connections is a strong plus if you want a key position with a Democratic candidate running for office.
Also I suspect they pay a lot more than your average space advocate group…