"According to multiple government and industry sources, Shawcross is believed to represent a group of mid-level White House staffers who shepherded Griffin through his confirmation and his early months as Administrator. This group constitutes a faction that has been hostile to the Shuttle and station's role at the center of the human spaceflight program, and have believed for years that termination of both projects were needed to reinvigorate U.S. space policy and make room for more advanced exploration missions, such as lunar bases and manned trips to Mars"

Cowing protects all of his sources identities, while "things just happen", and the PR slant continues...

It's roughly the same people that Anderson funded to the tune of some $10 million per year, now gettting help from the Thiokol suits

Their plan, such as it was, and such as it is now, is for the US to cancel the shuttle, cancel the ISS, and use the money saved to fly a few people off to an earth-like Mars. While he never explicitly concisely states it, Cowing supports this course of action.

My suspicion is that what may happen instead has been and is that the shuttle is cancelled, the ISS is cancelled, and that the money saved is saved. There is no massive public support for manned Mars flight, and as near as I can tell roughly 60% of the population is opposed.

PS - sorry I did not preserve the URL, but this passage, which is really the only important one, comes from Cowing's article on a Whitehouse staff memo.

Have a nice day