Obama fires MMS head

[Jennicut]

Report: Obama fires MMS head
By Eric Zimmermann - 05/27/10 10:46 AM ET

President Barack Obama has fired the head of the Minerals Management Service (MMS), The Associated Press reports.

MMS is responsibility for monitoring and regulating offshore drilling and has taken intense criticism since the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig.

Obama is expected to announce his decision to replace Director Elizbaeth Birnbaum later Thursday. Birnbaum has held the post since July of 2009.

A report released earlier this week revealed that MMS employees had accepted numerous gifts from oil companies and had viewed pornography on government computers. At least one inspector had used meth.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has decided to split MMS into three branches. Birnbaum is not expected to be assigned to any of those agencies.

Salazar, when announcing the splintering of the agency earlier this month, declined to directly address Birnbaum's role.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/100179-report-obama-fires-mms-head

Nice to see Obama does not promote failure upward. Apparently, she had year to clean the place up and just did not get it done. Now, does anyone else think Salazar needs to go or is there a case for him staying?

[Peacetrain]

1. I am A OK with that!!

[Captain Hilts]

2. Yes. Well done. Now, haul Bush Admin officials before Congress. Cheney too. nt

[global1]

3. The MMS Employees That Took Gifts & Viewed Pornography - Did That.......

happen under the Bush MMS Administration? and where they fired and when? Cause reading the original post one might be led to believe that this happened under Birnbaum - which I don't think was the case.

[HughMoran]

4. good

[Catherina]

5. One down. Keep going /nt

[asphalt.jungle]

6. i hate how the article announces her firing and when she was hired.

then follow it up with this line and make no mention of when those transgressions occurred:

"A report released earlier this week revealed that MMS employees had accepted numerous gifts from oil companies and had viewed pornography on government computers. At least one inspector had used meth."

that didn't happen on her watch. she's not being fired because of the gross behavior of the the bush era. maybe it's because she hasn't whipped the dept into shape quick enough. i dunno. but that line is incredibly misleading.

[Jennicut]

11. You are right. I reread the article again and it IS misleading.

I wish I had posted a better article announcing her firing. She was let go only for not getting the dept. cleaned up fast enough, not for any previous stuff.

[chill_wind]

7. A very good decision. Clean out there has to start somewhere.

He would seem to be on very firm ground. K & R.

[LaurenG]

8. Salazar needs to go

he has been ineffective and few will trust that he knows what he's doing.

[donco6]

9. Very good!

I think Salazar needs to go, too, if Obama can find someone good to replace him, which shouldn't be TOO hard.

[SunsetDreams]

10. K&R

[racaulk]

12. Good!

:thumbsup:

K&R

[treestar]

13. This kind of thing is not quite fair

This person had the bad luck for this to happen while she had the office.

How can any of us be sure that when something extraordinary goes wrong, what we do in our jobs may not have been the optimal thing to do?

This is just scapegoating.

[jenmito]

14. Salazar claimed she resigned. n/t

[Jennicut]

15. I guess Obama will talk about it today...very interested in what happened.

She does seem to have been ineffective at the very least in turning the dept. around.