How Many Whipping Boys And Scapegoats Do You Need? [Reader Post]

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.