MMS head - is she the "ceremonial" firing over Deepwater Horizon?

Just-departed Minerals Management Service director Elizabeth Birnbaum - resigned on her own or fired? I say fired; that's what some Congressional Democrats seem to think.

I say fired, but, allowed to look like she resigned. The One and Kenny Boy Salazar probably talked personally on this, despite WH denials of knowledge.

And, made to look like the fall gal:

Birnbaum was appointed last July by Salazar after serving as staff director for the Committee on House Administration, the panel that manages legislative branch agencies. Before that, she was vice president for government affairs and general counsel for American Rivers, where she directed advocacy programs for the nation's top river conservation organization until 2007, according to her biography page on the MMS website.

She previously worked at the Interior Department from 2000 to 2001 as associate solicitor for mineral resources, supervising a staff of attorneys that provided legal advice and developed regulations for the MMS, according to her bio page.

Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said Birnbaum's departure "does not address the root problem."

"She has only been the public face of MMS for 11 months and the most serious allegations occurred prior to her tenure," he said in a written statement. "This might on the surface be a good start but must not be the end game."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at a news conference Thursday that "there has to be a systematic change there. More than just personnel."

Indeed. Unless she was given an express directive from above, i.e. from Kenny Boy, she had no reason to start that work, as in making a real overhaul of MMS.

So, she had a decent enviro background. Not too bad, right? She had a late-Clinton Era MMS bit of a ride. So, she knew something about MMS operations, right? Certainly on the legal said.

That said, that one's a "could be good, could be bad," scenario. Remember, it was the Slicker's (pun intended?) administration that started "loosening up" MMS, and well before Georgie Porgie's 2000 "election." It was 1997-98 when this started, at the same time Slick Willie started really entering his neolib blooming, as shown by most all his financial brains pushing for the Glass-Steagall dismantling, etc.

So, Birmbaum may have been Kenny Boy Salazar's choice precisely because she wasn't a boat-rocker.

That said, Obama's comments on Deepwater Horizon sure sounds like Bush on Katrina.