AIAA interview of NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe, October 2002:

AIAA: "Your predecessor served a record 10 years in this job. Do you aspire to such longevity?"
Sean O'Keefe: "Absolutely not! Please take me out of my misery long before then! I have a working understanding with my wife: When we are about six months from going broke, please let me know-that's when I'll quit. The timing will be when I have three kids that will be entering college, that's going to be the pacing item. Or I'll have to get a paper route to supplement!"

QUESTION: Could this "revolving door" into the lucrative private sector aspiration be at least part of why long overdue pro-entrepreneurial reforms essentially are not materializing? Even CONGRESS has given NASA the go-ahead on offering competitive prizes, and yet we peculiarly keep hearing about the major contractor-pleasing Orbital Spaceplane:

http://www.spaceprojects.com/prizes

Perhaps Halliburton, the Iraqi war sole-sourcing beneficiary and also the company that made a multimillionaire out of Dick Cheney (who is O'Keefe's main backer) wants to see who is the biggest "yes man" (or woman) before endorsing his (or her) potential Pentagon directorship bid. O'Keefe's served in the D.O.D. before, although the Columbia disaster may serve as an impediment to his accession to that particular tax-subsidized throne.

Either way, if NASAWatch.COM (but definitely NOT the .INFO version) thinks that O'Keefe won't go unless Bush does, it's worth mentioning that Bush's contract's due for renewal (or rejection) in just over a year. Captains go down with their ships and the USA is more indebted and with a larger foreign trade deficit than it was when George H.W. Bush was leading in the polls at this time in 1991. Indeed, our national debt has nearly doubled since then:

http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdpenny.htm

even as our population has aged significantly.