Obama Shills Float New Theory As To Why Administration is Clueless on Gulf Oil Spill

Politifact looks at an exchange between former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich and Obama political advisor Donna Brazille and finds Brazille's explanation of White House inactivity to be lacking:

In a back and forth with former labor secretary Robert Reich, Brazile said Congress created a policy that puts BP -- not the federal government -- in charge of the response.

"The present spectacle of the Coast Guard asking BP to speed up this clean-up is absurd. I mean, the federal government needs to be in charge," Reich, a former Labor Secretary under President Bill Clinton, said. "The president needs to be in charge of this. Use BP's expertise. Use BP's resources. But the president must be in charge of all of this. Otherwise, he looks like he's just standing on the sidelines." 

"Well," Brazile said, "the administration has been constrained by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which basically gives the responsible party the lead role in trying to not only fix the problem, but contain the problem," Brazile responded. "That has been the problem from day one. They've waited for BP to come up with the answers, and we know that BP continues to mislead people."

The Truth-O-Meter says false.

The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 was passed in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez spill in Prince William Sound in 1989. The law was designed to better coordinate the government response to a major oil event, and to set penalties for companies responsible. It was approved by Congress and signed into law on Aug. 18, 1990.

In general, it gives the president more authority in an oil event, not less.

There's more explanation at the link. Bottom line, this explanation fails.