Whipping Boy: A boy formerly raised with a prince or other young nobleman and whipped for the latter’s misdeeds.
President Obama is desperately seeking scapegoats and whipping boys; anyone, who can shoulder blame and divert public pressure away from the fact that our President dribbled and chased golf balls for thirty nine days during one of the greatest ecological disasters in history.
On Thursday, Ms Liz Birnbaum’s tenure as the head of Minerals Management Service, the agency that oversees offshore drilling, was terminated.
At his press conference on Thursday, Obama faced serious questioning for the first time in his career; he maintained that he had no idea as to the nature of Ms Birnbaum’s departure, whether it was a dismissal or a voluntary resignation. Birnbaum’s departure became public two hours before the news conference. Since this agency is responsible for overseeing the BP oil disaster, the journalists were just as skeptical as the public for the first time since Obama took office.
The New York Times’ Jackie Calmes pressed for an answer.“I’m also curious as how it is that you didn’t know about Ms. Birnbaum’s resignation/firing before,” Calmes said
A Commander in Chief is generally thought to be in control of his agencies, especially when one is involved in a monumental disaster.
“Well, you’re assuming it was a firing,” the president responded. “If it was a resignation, then she would have submitted a letter to Mr. Salazar this morning at a time when I had a whole bunch of other stuff going on.”
The President was quick to start his lawyerly dance of evasion and rephrasing questions.
“So you rule out that she was fired?” Calmes asked.
“I’m — come on, I don’t know,” Obama replied. “I’m telling you the — I found out about it this morning. So I don’t yet know the circumstances, and Ken Salazar has been in testimony on the Hill.”
An administration official explained after the press conference that Salazar told the President Wednesday night that he had decided to replace Birnbaum at the Minerals Management Service after the President told the Secretary to make sure that every person under him was “capable of doing the job he or she had.”
“The President had not spoken with Secretary Salazar to discuss how the replacement was carried out by the time of the press conference,” the official said.
Officials have portrayed Birnbaum’s resignation decision as a voluntary move by the MMS director, who has held the job only since July 2009. It also comes at a time when the White House has felt increased pressure over its response to the oil spill.
Birnbaum was scheduled to testify Thursday alongside Interior Secretary Ken Salazar before a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee. But she was not present as Salazar began speaking, and her written, prepared remarks weren’t distributed to the public.
President Obama has felt the need to cast blame or engage in finger pointing throughout his term; however, the public eventually tires of the leader who is never at fault. The concept of a faultless President who can never make a mistake is hard to imagine after a failed stimulus bill that left the country in mired debt for generations, an economy that is faltering, earning the distrust from traditional allies, an empathy with our enemies, and unemployment that is increasing steadily; but still he plays us for fools and wonder if we are the whipping boys.
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so what do YOU think that no one should be blamed except Obama ? That he personally should have been keeping watch on the rig ?
John Ryan,
How would you ever come to that conclusion after reading this article?
It seems both fair and reasonable that even with ” a whole bunch of other stuff going on”, Obama would be up to speed on what all personnel dealing with the oil spill. It certainly strains credulity to believe with a press conference on the oil spill imminent, Obama wouldn’t have ALL the facts – that is if he cared to do his job. In this case, a press conference, supposedly informing the public about the government’s actions and plans. Obama is responsible for the competency of the people in his administration, whether he likes it or not.
During the campaign, Obama ridiculed both President Bush and John McCain for being unable to multi-task. Obama assured the country that he would be winning the war, managing the economy, protecting the environment, picking physicians for every American, while simultaneously holding a press conference so we could all witness Obama’s amazing superiority.
Obama is now claiming, he’s a busy man – after all, he’s the President! He’s got a “bunch of other stuff going on”! Obama sounds truly surprised by that! Who can’t multi-task now?
Heaven forbid, Dick Cheney would have the expertise and the contacts. Do you know that Safety Boss extinguished over 40% of the oil fires in Kuwait with fire retardant? Call the world renowned experts- especially the offshore gurus, which they are.
The Coast Guard tried their best, but flooded the catarmaran platform, having the riser ruined, and get this, drill pipe inside it- a necessity for well control. A world class bunsen burner would have been the best scenario. Apply a choke, use a manifold and fire retardant, and shut her in.
No direction, no expertise form the top, just syncophants. Your precedent is the Immaculate Misconception. Ask him what a junk shot is, without a teleprompter?
John ryan, I regard those as rhetorical questions and I think you do as well.
In order to engage in meaningful discussion, I will reply to the questions I assume you have beneath the emotion. There appears to have been problems with the “Regulatory Procedures” in Washington and on the drilling platform itself. Some of the men responsible for malfeasance on the drilling platform have probably been incinerated, time will tell. If there is malfeasance within the Minerals Agency or higher up, the stakes are considerably higher than a typical ecological disaster. Eleven men died on that platform, It doesn’t take a lawyer to realize what the consequences are if there has been intentional oversight, dereliction of duty, or even bribery.
For the president to all of a sudden want competent people in positions that are of real importance seems to be an indicator that he has had an epiphany of sorts; at least he might be worried that the crony system of Chicago will not work on a national level when positions are more critical than dog catchers and waste disposal executives.
The men are dead, the animals will be dieing for weeks or months or maybe even years, the total human cost may not even be able to be estimated; consequently, we the public expect a full and honest accounting, not the sleight of hand type of behavior we have seen so far. It sounds like the honeymoon with the MSM is over, the president will now sink or swim without the benefit of a benevolent press; platitudes and empty political phrases will not gloss over the disaster that has occurred.
Obama probably could have guaranteed his reelection if he would have been down there with his sleeves rolled up and oil on his dress shirt helping the people of the Gulf try and save their way of life. He blew a great photo op and showed the country an indifference while he elected to play golf and basketball.
No one expected him to be watching the rig, he was supposed to hire competent people to do that; hiring incompetents to fulfill political commitments puts the guilt directly in line with the man who did the hiring. It will take time to decipher this mess and we should not jump to conclusions; however the President has blown the clean up effort and he no longer has a pandering press. It doesn’t look good.
Oil Guy, my son in law has a Directional Drilling Company in Calgary and I get most of my drilling info from him. It is reassuring to hear you weigh in on this stuff. Keep us informed please. Welcome home.
hey skooks, how did you know i was out of town. I was running tombstones. Those are plugs for old unproductive wells.
Your son is in the right technology because you can turn an oil strike tenfold. That’s why your Gulf oilspill is so widespread. A pilot hole of 14k feet and a horizontal runner of 20k feet. You need a directional driller for this. There’s your son and many others doing this.
Remember people, there’s over 250k Americans in Calgary and I’m doing my best to turn their kiddies into hockey players in the best hockey production centre in the world. I live for for minor hockey and I say goodbye to the oilpatch.
Oil Guy, I didn’t see your posts and figured you were in the oil patch.
The hockey sounds like a lot of fun. I admire guys who help boys grow into good men, it is an important job.
My son in law owns Precision Directional Drilling along with several partners, he designs the tools and has multiple patents; you may have worked with his techs before. They are strictly land based, so it wasn’t them, but how come they missed the well head by 600 feet with the cap if the directional tools can put them within inches at several miles? What happened?
John ryan those questions sounded like something you would hear from Stephanie Miller or Randy Roads; you will need to do better than that to get traction here. They are pathetic lightweights leading an audience of air heads.
How could this be if, by O’Bama’s own admission, he’s thought of nothing else “day and night”?
Congrats are in order for your son in law. Those investors and players for Precision Drilling took immense risks in a testy market and have now the biggest drilling fleet in Canada. They’re worth billions today. The directional technology is outstanding also. Must be funny to watch bankers who morph their eyes to the size of golf balls when they hit them up for loans. LOL.
BP is playing navy now. A mile down. My gosh. Seems ironic that they can drill holes with absolute precision and can’t find the wellhead on a recon. Its too bad they lost that drillship. It would have made troubleshooting that much easier even with so much of the innards being burnt out. I feel for you guys because that production is a national treasure.
One of two things happens when TOTUS (Teleprompter Of The United States) isn’t programmed ahead of time with an answer for the liberals: (1) The official accidentally tells the truth. Remember Pelosi’s “We have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it.?” (2) The official babbles on and doesn’t say much and you have to try to put the pieces together like a jig-saw puzzle. Some of the puzzles they create are missing pieces, some have too many pieces, and some of the pieces keep changing color and shape.