So Obama has named some ball buster to head the MMS. Do you think Salazar

[gateley]

will get the ax for not bringing in someone like this sooner?

[JuniperLea]

1. I wondered the same...

I think it likely.

[gateley]

2. He's been singing Salazar's praises, but that doesn't mean anything. It'll be

interesting to see.

[JuniperLea]

5. I think he gives everyone the chance...

To prove their worth, or not... I bet he's a great dad. He sure keeps his cool! I'm trying to learn from him.

[gateley]

8. I know he's a great dad. I remember on Thanksgiving he and the girls

were looking at the Thanksgiving Turkey (alive!) and Malia was kind of gingerly reaching out to it, wanting to touch it but hesitant. Obama kind of jumped in a "boo!" kind of way which made her jump, and they both LAUGHED - it was so cute!

[JuniperLea]

9. Thanks for the reminder...

That was so cool:)

I'm not a basketball fan, but I had a great admiration for John Wooden, and I've revisited his "Pyramid of Success" after his recent passing. Emotion is your enemy... somehow I'm thinking Obama was taught this art. I'm far too emotional... I need to work on it... Obama is a great role model in this regard. I'd be a swearing, stomping, finger pointing jackass by now if I were in his shoes. My respect grows, oh yes it does.

[gateley]

10. My mom was always saying "we don't need the histrionics, Mary Ellen - stop

screeching". Whereas my dad, a doctor, said "well, you'll never have high blood pressure." :7

But I'm with you, if I were in Obama's place, with all he has had to contend with, I'd be throwing things and stomping down to the Senate and House and giving them a piece of my mind. I just couldn't be as level-headed as he is. That would have gone out the window.

[Arkana]

3. The prosecutor? I thought he was for the commission.

[gateley]

6. You may be right -- I 'heard' it as heading up the MMS. I'll go check it out.

[gateley]

7. Here's what it says:

Obama names new agency chief to oversee oil drilling

President Obama has named a new agency head to regulate and oversee the offshore oil drilling industry: Michael Bromwich, a former Justice Department inspector general and federal prosecutor.

Bromwich will run the beleaguered Minerals Management Service, criticized for a history of lax oversight leading up to the explosion that caused the BP oil leak eight weeks ago. Last month, MMS chief Elizabeth Birnbaum resigned.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2010/06/obama-names-new-agency-chief-to-oversee-oil-drilling/1

[Sebastian Doyle]

4. Let's hope so.

Salazar is an energy industry whore, and was a bad choice from the beginning.

[hobbit709]

11. I'll believe it when I see some balls being busted.

[depakid]

12. Salazar will get the axe and be the fall guy at some auspicious point down the track

Time's not ripe for that move yet.

[flamingdem]

14. yep. He's going to do it when the media is looking elsewhere nt

[depakid]

15. My guess is that the resignation will occur sometime after the reports come out

[AnnieBW]

17. Right now he's a convenient scapegoat

In all fairness, Interior is the armpit of the Federal Government. Just look at the clusterfuck that is Bureau of Indian Affairs. It's very hard to change a corporate culture that quickly, especially when the top management doesn't have buy-in from the actual workers. MMS has a very cozy relationship with their industry pals. In some cases, extremely cozy. They're going to fight tooth and nail to maintain the status quo. Salazar was definitely the WRONG person at the top, and the head of MMS was part of the problem. He should have fired her on his first day. It was a failure all the way down, but the buck stops with Salazar.

I'm betting that, once the well is capped, he's going to be "spending more time with his family."

[depakid]

18. Don't disagree with one word of that

Though there aren't many captured agencies who've had high profile scandals involving prostitutes and lines of coke to go along with more recent upbraidings from the Inspector General and the GAO.

That's in a class by itself- at least in most western industrialized nations.

[Laelth]

13. Salazar should be fired. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[Rockholm]

16. +1

[PufPuf23]

19. I knew from the start Salazar was a bad pick

The MMS seems to me reverted to the 60s-70s and in gross non-compliance with NEPA. The deep well drilling by Categorical Exclusion is a gross perversion of environmental laws.

Salazar to me was Reagan's Watt just not fundie and not having committed perjury in appointment hearing.

I am blown away that the USA has been paid in crude since under GWB rather than dollars or even finished products (but BP is the larest seller of fuels to the DoD) for the oil leases (that are priced like 60-70s National Forest timber and analygous to the fair return to the owners -citizens- in emerging nations that have nationalized or tried to nationalize to defend themselves from iImperialists and international corporations.