Tracking the transition: NASA not cooperating?

When the transition to the new administration kicked off on Nov. 5, President Bush pledged his administration will fully cooperate with President-elect Obama’s transition team to ensure things go smoothly. But it appears not every Bush administration official has received that message if this article in the Orlando Sentinel is correct:

NASA administrator Mike Griffin is not cooperating with President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team, is obstructing its efforts to get information and has told its leader that she is “not qualified” to judge his rocket program.

The piece goes on to say that Griffin also telling federal employees and contractors what they can tell the Obama team.

A NASA spokesman denied the allegations and said that although there are concerns that Obama’s six-person transition team, led by former NASA associate administrator Lori Garver, lacks the engineering skills needed to judge some of the technical programs, the administration is working well with the transition team.

Garver wouldn’t comment to the Sentinel, but sources close to her confirmed there were heated exchanges. Griffin is said to want to protect his signature program, the multi-billion dollar Constellation program, which is aimed at sending Americans back to the moon. (Incidentally, today is the 36th anniversary of the last time NASA landed on the moon.)

If cooperation is truly a problem at NASA — or any another agency for that matter — perhaps it’s time for the White House and Obama’s transition office to sit those folks down and make them watch the Sesame Street clip below. Because as any preschooler can tell you: cooperation makes it happen.