Will President Obama succeed in firing his second CEO? Having ousted Rick Wagoner from the top job at General Motors two years ago last month, the chief executive has now set his sights on the obscure, 80-year-old head of drugmaker Forest Laboratories. Obama fired Wagoner even before the decision was made (without a vote of Congress) for the U.S. government to take majority ownership of GM. Not to say that Wagoner deserved to stay, but was it ever Obama’s choice to make? And if so, how many CEOs will he have to fire before we start calling our nation’s chief executive the chief executioner instead?
The situation at Forest Labs, as reported Tuesday by the Wall Street Journal, is more complicated. The company recently settled charges of illegal marketing practices with the Justice Department, paying fines and a civil settlement worth a combined $313 million.
