Obama Sought to Know 'Whose Ass to Kick' on Oil Spill

Taking on the role of tough boss, President Obama said on the "Today" show Tuesday that, had BP CEO Tony Hayward been his employee, he would have fired him for remarks that seemed to minimize the Gulf oil spill. And ratcheting up the rhetoric, Obama said he's spent time huddled with experts "so I know whose ass to kick."

Hayward got himself in trouble when he called the Gulf of Mexico a "big ocean" and suggested the environmental impact of the spill from BP's blown-out well is "likely to be very, very modest." Hayward, who has spent considerable time in the Gulf since the April 20 rig explosion that created the still-uncontained spill, also complained, "I would like my life back."

Obama told NBC "Today" show host Matt Lauer he has not spoken personally with Hayward in the weeks since the explosion, but noted, "He wouldn't be working for me after any of those statements."

Obama said he had not spoken directly with Hayward "because my experience is when you talk to a guy like a BP CEO, he's going to say all the right things to me. I'm not interested in words. I'm interested in actions."

Obama's remarks reflected a continuing effort by the White House to show a strong-willed president staying on top of the unfolding disaster. A month and half after the explosion that claimed 11 lives, oil is still spewing from the 5,000-foot-deep well, and parts of the massive slick are washing up on the shorelines of four states, from Louisiana to Florida.

Obama said he wasn't interested in analyzing the spill as if in a college seminar. "We talk to these folks [experts] because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick."

"When you watch television or you go down to the Gulf and you see the birds covered in oil, and you talk to fishermen who are on the verge of tears, big, tough guys. . . . Their livelihoods are being smothered by this oil. It gets you frustrated," he said.

But the president said he was confident the government is on the right track in the effort to contain and clean up the oil, estimated to exceed 25 million gallons.

"We've just got to keep moving," he said. "It's going to be tough, but we're going to get through it."