Does Not Compute

NASA Administrator Bolden to al-Jazeera..



Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs, Monday, asked about Bolden's comments..

Q I wanted to ask you, there are some comments that the NASA Administrator, Charles Bolden, made a couple weeks back that drew some interest, specifically from conservatives who are wondering why we he said that one of the charges that the President gave him when he got the job was that he had to focus on outreach to the Muslim world. Why is the NASA Administrator doing that?

MR. GIBBS: That's an excellent question, and I don't think -- that was not his task, and that's not the task of NASA.

Q So did he just misspeak?

MR. GIBBS: I think so.

Q Has the President spoken to him about that clear it up?

MR. GIBBS: No.

Q Anybody here at the White House?

MR. GIBBS: I’m sure people -- people at the White House here talk to NASA all the time.

First off, of course people in the WH talk to NASA all the time, just as they do with all the agencies. That was a throwaway deflection. Second, the initial explanation some days ago was that Bolden's "foremost" comment was about outreach only, ie, the foremost outreach, which could make sense, but watching the al-Jazeera video he seems to be pretty clear about the three pronged charge given him by Obama. And if that was the case why did Gibbs toss him under the space bus yesterday?

Apparently the new strategy is to downplay and pretend the whole thing was just a slip of the tongue--no harm, no Lebron foul. But if he really misspoke about something that large, something that could offend the Muslim world if interpreted wrong, why wouldn't the chief call him in for a little chat about acting so stupidly? Gibbs claimed Obama had not spoken to him, not even over a beer in the Rose Garden. Did anyone talk to Bolden then? Who's running the show, Zuckerman?