BP CEO Tony Hayward is out. Fired, resigned, reassigned. Small comfort to those injured, perhaps irreparably, by BP’s gulf oil spill. Small comfort to Americans outraged by his pompous, arrogant, defiant attitude about the whole mess. Nor is there any comfort in knowing his replacement, Robert Dudley, is a rather easy-going, low-key American.

I’ve no idea what the internal politics were surrounding Hayward’s departure, whether he had as many defenders as detractors. The fact remains, where the company’s image in the U.S. is concerned, BP waited far too long to dump Hayward. The damage has been done. Rearranging the deck chairs now won’t help.

Flash! CNN just reported BP is planning to offset some $10 billion in gulf clean-up costs from its tax debt to the U.S. Guess who’ll be making up that difference. Just when you thought they’d run out of ways to infuriate us …