Keith Cowing: "....In addition, the GAO, not always known for its rosy appreciation of NASA's progress, thinks that the future of human spaceflight is a national priority for the new Administration. And Mike Griffin thinks that this is all "amusing" and that space is "probably not deservedly on that list" of national priorities?..."
http://www.nasawatch.com/

So, you got human space flight and space- two things which could be different.
And Griffin doesn't think Space is national priority?
I think the US military would disagree with that- even forgetting about NASA.

There is no question that space is a national priority. This doesn't require much thought.
Some people argue that human spaceflight, should not be a national priority. But less people argue that it isn't at this moment a national priority. The whole point of people arguing about human spaceflight is that at the moment and in the past it's seen by them as too much of a national priority- and are arguing that we should have a different priority.

Now, I would argue that Space isn't given enough of a priority considering how important it is.
And btw which *cause* to I assign to space not being given enough priority that it deserves. I think in terms of America, the answer is, obviously, NASA.
And don't say this, merely because Griffin has seemed to show such utter ignorance in this matter. Rather it's what he and other past administrators have done.

Anyways, as a suggestion, I think the next administrator should understand
how important space actually is. Forget about any other qualifications- what is important is that the administrator "gets it".