The second Bush administration has been much kinder to Thomas P. Jasin than the first. In this administration, he's just been named director of NASA's Robotic Lunar Exploration Program, preparing the way for future manned missions.
In the first, he found himself doing a stretch in the federal slammer after being found guilty of conspiring to evade the international arms embargo against South Africa in a deal involving Stryker anti-tank missiles.
 
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He spent about 18 months in a federal prison camp in Schuylkill County, about 2 1/2 hours from Philadelphia. He got out a couple of years ago after the trial judge overturned the conviction. The judge concluded that Jasin's lawyer didn't adequately investigate important witnesses and provided ineffective counsel.
Jasin had been vice president and then president in the 1980s of a Lancaster, Pa., technology company when he was working on the Stryker deal. He was convicted in 1992 but remained free pending appeal for nearly eight years -- longer, prosecutors said, than any convicted felon in memory who didn't flee.
Jasin said in his appeal that he believed his actions were legal because he'd been assured they had been approved by officials in Washington. The judge in the case, who could have sentenced him to five years, reduced the sentence to two years.
"I still love my country," Jasin told reporters at his 1998 sentencing. "But I'm afraid of my government." Well, maybe not too afraid.
Unclear how Jasin got hired by NASA -- apparently even before the federal prosecutors had dismissed his indictment. Word is NASA never checked with federal prosecutors.
Asked about these matters, NASA spokeswoman Dolores Beasley said: "We do not comment on personnel issues."
Don't Let the Door Hit You . . .
White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. is unhappy because too many top Bush aides are hanging on to their jobs -- even though he's encouraging them to take a hike.
"I've expressed that frustration to the senior staff," he told the New York Times on Monday. He said he had been "surprised" more hadn't quit, noting that President Bush wanted to "have more energy."
Talk about friendly fire! Word is staffers were most upset. Indeed, some were furious, saying Card had not communicated that notion clearly to top staff. People apparently had been asked if they were thinking of staying or of going. This is, of course, the old "enthusiasm check." Folks dumb enough to say they were thinking about leaving, we're told, are now being bid a fond adieu.
In addition to searching out the energy-challenged, there have been staff cuts -- the Cabinet affairs, advance and media affairs offices were said to have taken substantial hits.
All this is making White House staffers, those laggards, very grumpy. More churlish types suggest that perhaps Card, who they note has been there since Day One, might want to lead by example? Sure.
A Hard Man to Keep Track Of
Where's Carlos? Our recent e-mails from the Commerce Department have been most confusing about the travel plans of new Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez. One e-mail last month said that Assistant Secretary William Lash had said that Undersecretary Grant Aldonas said in Hong Kong that Gutierrez would go first to China. Lash said a visit to Mexico or Canada might be more likely.
