Most people haven't given NASA's Apollo program much thought since Tom Hanks and the guy from Big Love returned home safely from their disastrous lunar road trip. Some might say that the American people have figuratively stuck the program in a locked cabinet and allowed it to gather dust. The Governor of Hawaii on the other hand has literally stuck her Apollo mementos in the back of a closet...and lost them. Whoops!

The rare moon rocks were given as a gift to the state of Hawaii over thirty years ago were recently found during a routine inventory of items in the Governor's office. The rocks, from the Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 missions, had been presumed lost.

According to the Honolulu Advertiser, Joseph Gutheinz, a Houston-area man who tracks the whereabouts of moon rocks in his spare time, had been on a seemingly endless odyssey for over a decade trying to find the location of the priceless rocks. Gutheinz, who estimates the rock's black market value at about $10 million, had been told that his best bet for finding the rocks would be to check with the state archives. After reaching out to the agency he was told that they "not only do not have the moon rocks, but we have never had them!"

Undeterred, Gutheinz informed Governor Linda Lingle's office of his quest. Fast forward a few months and according to Lenny Klompus, a spokesman for the Governor, the moon rocks have miraculously been found; that's not all though, according to Klompus, not only have the rocks been found...but they were never really "missing" in the first place. "We knew they were here," he said. "We just weren't sure which cabinet they were in."

Of course this line of logic might come out of the Bill Clinton "definition of is" school of thought, but when dealing with politicians this sort of thing has to be expected.

Gutheinz, who teaches an online course in investigative techniques at the University of Phoenix, called the non-discovery discovery "great news," but stressed that the rocks are still "not secured" as long as they are in the care of the Governor's office.

While we can all now sleep well knowing that these historically (and financially) significant artifacts are accounted for, this saga still serves as an interesting illustration of how a healthy dose of incompetence can screw up even the simplest of scenarios. The refusal of the governor's office to even acknowledge that the rocks were ever missing in the first place has turned the story into something of a farce.

Why not just come out and say, "Yeah sure the rocks were lost, but it's all good kids. We found the rocks and they'll now be on permanent display at the statehouse for little future space boys and girls to oooh and aaah at for millions of field trips to come." It seems simple enough, right?

Unfortunately, in this political climate, any admission of weakness, no matter how benign, is seen as setting yourself up for some sort of "gotcha moment." It is more than a little sad, but if nothing else it makes for great snark.