Elizabeth Birnbaum Fired as Director of MMS

[tishaLA]

Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune

Just announced on MSNBC

Read more: http://www.startribune.com/business/95009344.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUsZ

---

ETA: Star Tribune is the only source I can find with the story, but they have nothing more than MSNBC announced

[BumRushDaShow]

1. Just saw the banner!

:kick:

[Dappleganger]

2. That's the change I can believe in.

When you're going in the wrong direction, CHANGE IT.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

27. BUSH AND HIS PEOPLE HAVE DONE TERRIBLE DAMAGE TO AMERICA

IN CHINA SHE WOULD BE HUNG.

WE NEED TO CLEAN OUT THE RAT HOLE.

[breadandwine]

30. This is the problem with being DLC.

President Kennedy hired "the best and the brightest." Obama hired too many people intended to please the Republicans and look Republican.

Now we are paying the price. Now HE will be paying the price and the Democratic Party will be paying the price.

[glinda]

37. Yuppers. Media needs to remind people WHO these failed people were though.

[harkadog]

41. She was an Obama appointee.

[CTyankee]

3. That office needs to be cleaned out with a strong disinfectant.

There needs to be extensive investigation of all of this. And while we're at it, let's get Dick Cheney re-investigated...

[Captain Hilts]

11. And Bush Admin officials frog marched. nt

[FailureToCommunicate]

32. +1 **ribbit ribbit**

[TwilightGardener]

4. Was she a Junior appointee, or an Obama appointee?

I do think some heads should roll, but only if they've been there long enough to deserve it.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

6. She assumed duties in June 2009

[Renew Deal]

8. Obama

S. Elizabeth (Liz) Birnbaum assumed duties as Director of the Minerals Management Service (MMS) on July 15, 2009

She was also in gov't during the Clinton years. http://www.mms.gov/ooc/newweb/directorspage/director.htm

[tishaLA]

14. Obama appointee who had worked in Clinton and Shrub admins, too

It was Birnbaum's second stint at the Interior Department. She worked in the solicitor's office at the end of Clinton administration, ending up as associate solicitor for minerals management. During the George W. Bush administration she directed advocacy programs at American Rivers, a top conservation group, and returned to Interior after Barack Obama took office.

http://www.whorunsgov.com/Profiles/Elizabeth_Birnbaum

[SaveAmerica]

21. I read that web address as "whoresrungov.com"

[Bette Noir]

26. Ah-- A question that answers itself.

[indepat]

34. Hmm? Appointing someone fresh off a stint at a top conservative group might just come back to bite

one in the ass. :P

[semillama]

38. American Rivers is a top CONSERVATION group, not a conservative group

Funny how we live in a world where "conservatives" are opposed to "conservation".

[FarCenter]

45. It's a $8 million/year organization - Who thought a lawyer from such could regulate drilling?

[indepat]

48. Oops! Sorry

:P

[harkadog]

42. What conservative group are you talking about??

[sinkingfeeling]

15. She's a 'lifer' ... been in DC for decades in a variety of 'environmental' positions.

From 2001-2007, she was Vice President for Government Affairs and General Counsel for American Rivers, where she directed advocacy programs for the nation’s leading river conservation organization.


http://www.mms.gov/ooc/newweb/directorspage/director.htm

[BeFree]

5. I find it interesting...that....when...

...when the people get pissed off and start raising hell, things start changing. Like when old people who never voted before came out and voted for Obama.

[charlesg]

7. Utterly corrupt agency. They need to thoroughly PURGE all ranks at MMS

[FarCenter]

9. Typical bureaucrat with a Harvard JD -- knows nothing about drilling

http://www.mms.gov/ooc/newweb/directorspage/director.htm

Also no management experience -- where do they get these?

[Captain Hilts]

13. If they're from Harvard they must be omniscient! nt

[charlesg]

18. Yeah, 1 Harvard grad equals 10 U Mich or Berkeley grads

Fuck that elitist shit. Pardonnez mon Français.

[FarCenter]

29. I don't know what university has the best Petroleum Engineering dept., but its not in the Ivy League

[PfcHammer]

33. Hook 'em

;)

[charlesg]

36. Top Petroleum Engineering schools:

1 University of Texas--Austin (Cockrell), Austin, TX 4.6

2 Stanford University, Stanford, CA 4.2

2 Texas A&M University--College Station (Look), College Station, TX 4.2

4 University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK 4.0

5 Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 3.4

5 Pennsylvania State University--University Park, University Park, PA 3.4

5 University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 3.4

8 Louisiana State University--Baton Rouge, Baton Rouge, LA 3.3

9 University of Southern California (Viterbi), Los Angeles, CA 3.1

10 New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, NM 2.8

10 Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 2.8

Source: U.S. News and World Report’s 2009 Best Graduate Schools

http://whichuniversitybest.blogspot.com/2008/11/top-petroleum-engineering-schools-in.html

[izquierdista]

19. Harvard Law School alumni directory

Or if you remember back to Clinton's appointments in '93, Yale Law School alumni directory.

[msongs]

10. some generals oughta go next nt

[dipsydoodle]

16. Some genitals too

.

[charlesg]

20. They make guillotines for that?

[CountAllVotes]

46. right!

hang 'em high, very high for a very long time until all of the stink goes away (will be waiting for years for this to happen!). :grr: :mad: :argh:

:kick:

[maddezmom]

12. AP: AP sources: Elizabeth Birnbaum fired as director of the US Minerals Management Service

http://www.startribune.com/business/95009344.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUsZ

[glinda]

39. "Off with her head" I say!

[Historic NY]

17. NYT article critical of her not doing the job.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/us/politics/26birnbaum.html

<snip>
Agency scientists and other employees complained that since taking the post in July, Ms. Birnbaum has done almost nothing to fix problems that have plagued the minerals agency for over a decade. She rarely visited the agency’s far-flung offices, so few staff members have ever seen her. The same agency managers who during the Bush administration ignored or suppressed scientists’ concerns about the safety and environmental risks of some off-shore drilling plans are still there doing the same things, they said.
<snip>

[SaveAmerica]

25. Good Riddance...

[NBachers]

31. Aaah- a "Boutique" position

[dixiegrrrrl]

22. Wiki reports she was fired on May 19th.

when Salazar revamped the agency.

S. Elizabeth (Liz) Birnbaum assumed duties as Director of the Minerals Management Service (MMS) on July 15, 2009 and was fired on May 19, 2010 because of her role in BP oil spill.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minerals_Management_Service


MMS web page still up with her as Director.

[joanmj]

23. Good!

n/t

[mikelgb]

24. Obama's Harvard nepotism

[Jennicut]

35. I don't think was hired for anything to do with being from Harvard. She

was in the interior dept. before. I think it was prior experience. Except she was put there in July 2009 and given almost a year to clean up the place and did nothing. Happy to see Obama actually fires some people when they don't do their job instead of promoting them like Bush did.

[FarCenter]

44. She spent one year 2000-2001 at Interior previously supervising lawyers

I don't think that this counts as significant prior experience at Interior.

What she had were congressional connections from her experience there from 2007-2009:

"Before her appointment, she was staff director for the Committee on House Administration, where she oversaw strategy development, budget management and staff activities for the committee that manages legislative branch agencies."

This, plus her environmental credentials as a lobbyist for an environmental organization, made her emminently confirmable.

"From 2001-2007, she was Vice President for Government Affairs and General Counsel for American Rivers, where she directed advocacy programs for the nation’s leading river conservation organization."

[Nothing Without Hope]

28. What they WON'T say is why the Obama administration let her stay on in the first place

All part of the oligarchy. When things get nasty, they start playing innocent and throwing each other under the bus. Birnbaum certainly needed to go, but that's not the end of government responsibility in this fiasco.

[glinda]

40. I think he had too many things coming at him from the get go.

[tishaLA]

43. UPDATE from The Hill

The head of the Minerals and Management Services (MMS) has resigned.

MMS, which is charged with monitoring and regulating off shore drilling, has come under intense criticism since the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told a House panel this morning that Director Elizabeth Birnbaum had stepped down.

“She did it on her own terms and her own volition,” he said at a House Appropriations Committee hearing.

Salazar called Birnbaum “very strong and very effective” and said she had helped to implement reforms at the long-troubled agency. Birnbaum has helped to address a “culture of corruption,” Salazar said. <...> http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/100179-report-obama-fires-mms-head">The Hill

[Iowa]

49. In other words, she WASN'T fired???

And she is being described by Salazar as being "very effective" and "a strong leader"?

[FarCenter]

50. Worse -- she abandoned her post when the going got rough

Add cowardice and dereliction of duty to incompetence.

[donco6]

51. They always give them that option.

"I'll have your resignation on my desk tomorrow morning."

[polichick]

47. delete - wrong place