Just as safe as CAN BE!

NASA scientist James Hansen makes an interesting point about the coverage of Deutsch’s lack of a college degree:
Yesterday, Dr. Hansen said that the questions about Mr. Deutsch's credentials were important, but were a distraction from the broader issue of political control of scientific information.

"He's only a bit player," Dr. Hansen said of Mr. Deutsch. " The problem is much broader and much deeper and it goes across agencies. That's what I'm really concerned about."

"On climate, the public has been misinformed and not informed," he said. "The foundation of a democracy is an informed public, which obviously means an honestly informed public. That's the big issue here."

Hansen is really on to something here, and instead of the story being about a 24-year-old lying, it should be about this: how did this guy, who already had dubious qualifications, make it into NASA with such an obvious lie on his resume? To work for a federal agency, including NASA, extensive background checks are usually required. If I was able to uncover the truth about Deutsch in one phone call, then he must have been placed in his current position without any investigation, due to his loyal service on the Bush presidential campaign.

For a president that paints himself as a champion of national security, the NASA incident is a major blow to Bush’s credibility. This isn’t the first time either, with George Deutsch now joining the ranks of Michael Brown, the embattled former director of FEMA, and Harriet Myers, Bush’s Supreme Court nominee who was subsequently withdrawn. Congratulations, Deutsch, this is a pretty elite circle!

The NASA censorship scandal was originally about partisan figures compromising the science, and it still is, but now it’s also about something much deeper and much more troubling. I don’t know how many others there are out there like Deutsch, but it shouldn’t be hard to find out. Journalists, it’s time to make some phone calls!

In the meantime, NASA needs the authority to remove the rest of those who are interfering with the scientific process for partisan gains. Although NASA's credibility has tragically taken a big hit here due to political interference, the real victim is the science. And, when the science suffers, we are all affected.