Director of Agency Overseeing Offshore Drilling Ousted

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Fox News:

Elizabeth Birnbaum, director of the embattled U.S. Minerals Management Service
, was fired Thursday in the wake of reports of mismanagement in the agency responsible for oversight of oil companies like BP, which is trying to clean up a massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Sources familiar with the matter told Fox News that she is not being reassigned and that she is out of government entirely.

In a written statement, Birnbaum said she is "grateful" to President Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar for allowing her "to serve this administration and the country."

"It's been a great privilege to serve as director of MMS," she said. "I have enormous admiration for the men and women of the MMS who do a difficult job under challenging circumstances. I'm hopeful that the reforms that the secretary and the administration are undertaking will resolve the flaws in the current system that I inherited."

Birnbaum submitted a resignation letter, which led to questions about whether she had quit or was removed from her post. Salazar told a congressional committee Thursday that Birnbaum departed "on her own volition."

Obama said at a news conference later in the day that he didn't learn of Birnbaum's resignation until Thursday and he didn't know the circumstances behind her departure.
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When it comes to covering his own rear end, Obama can claim a great deal of ignorance...