This initial comment by Michael Griffin about HLV is very encouraging.

Two things to watch for:

1) HLV as Shuttle-C
2) CEV as a high Lift/Drag entry vehicle enabling Mars return.

Those two things determine if Bush's Vision for Space Exploration is more than an empty flag-and-footprints exercise.

Michael Griffin has a huge task ahead of him. NASA suffers from severe gangrene. I would say at least half (up to two thirds) of NASA's management hierarchy needs to disappear. Griffin will have to do a lot of amputating followed by massive antibiotics to save NASA. When Griffin is done chopping off fingers, toes and limbs, he may find himself with a "viable" NASA that has a head and torso but only a left hand with a single finger. NASA maybe beyond salvation with Michael Griffin sipping from a poisoned chalice.

Michael Griffin has courage and I wish him success.

Gary