GovernmentExecutive.com

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin got off with a warning for comments he made in a speech urging an audience to support former Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas. The Office of Special Counsel, in a letter to Griffin, said he should have provided a "better example" of compliance with the Hatch Act, the Houston Chronicle reports.

In the speech last March, Griffin said: "The space program has had no better friends in its entire existence than Tom DeLay. He's still with us, and we need to keep him there. There just are no better people."

Those remarks "really walked up against that line" in the Hatch Act that prohibits federal officials from using their position to influence elections, OSC chief Scott Bloch said. OSC's letter to Griffin was "sternly worded," he added.