I'd be happy to argue over on Current Events the angels-dancing-on-the-head-of-a-pin question of whether General Shinseki was outright fired or forced out. It's quite a stretch to extend that controversy to this one over a Shuttle safety concern.

Given the essential contribution of groupthink to both the Challenger and Columbia disasters, it's entirely reasonable to be concerned by reports that NASA might be suppressing a safety concern. One of the promised reforms was, essentially, that anyone in the chain of Flight Readiness could pull the emergency brake cord and their concerns will get a hearing. What we know of this story so far doesn't seem to square with that pledge.

It may be nothing, and the story really needs clarification. But I think you can take it on faith that the space cadets of the HabitableZone aren't going to "feel good" about any more problems with the Shuttle. We know full well that the death of a third Shuttle and its crew will lead inevitably to abandonment of America's human spaceflight program. I'd rather wait a very long time to see another Shuttle launch than to have to go through the personal and national trauma of seeing another one lost.