"Replace them with what?"

Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen talks about BP's response while White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs bites his lip.

May 27, 2010: Less than 24 hours after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar angrily threatened to shove BP out of the way so the government to take over cleanup operations in the Gulf of Mexico, he was firmly contradicted by the Commandant of the Coast Guard.

"I am angry and I am frustrated that BP has been unable to stop this well from leaking and to stop the pollution from spreading he Salazar said at a press conference in Houston. "We are 33 days into this effort and deadline after deadline has been missed. If we find they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing, we'll push them out of the way appropriately"

However on Monday, Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen, who was appointed as the national incident commander by President Obama, said the idea was without merit.

"To push BP out of the way would raise the question, to replace them with what," Allen said at a White House briefing. 

While there is no question this is an unfortunate disaster, or as Allen called it, "an unprecedented, anomalous event," the response from the Obama administration has been pure politics.

Just minutes after touring the BP incident command center where he told employees he knew they were doing all they could, Interior Secretary Salazar stepped out to a bank of press microphones and told reporters he was keeping his foot on the throat of BP.

What the public is seeing now is a public execution of BP through pathetic politics. The administration has been told by President Obama that "BP gets no public credit at all," for the exhaustive efforts it is trying to cap the well.

We all recognize that BP is responsible for the cost of cleaning up the spill. What we don't all recognize is the true story of the events leading up to the April 20 explosion.

However, the President on down through his cabinet members know the real story.

They know exactly what happened on that rig the day it blew. 

But admitting that BP told TransOcean to shut the rig down before it blew, would rob them of a villian to pin the blame on.

As the formal investigation gets under way, more will become clearer about where the true liability rests and the curtain will be pulled back to reveal an administration that is trying to score political points from an unfortunate event.

Photo Credit AP