Obama Deploys Top Aides to Gulf

Three top Obama administration officials are returning to the Gulf Coast to monitor the massive oil spill that seems to have no end in sight, as frustration with the response to the spill threatens to boil over. Environmental Protection Agency chief Lisa Jackson was headed today to Louisiana, where she planned to visit with frustrated residents. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano were to lead a Senate delegation to the region tomorrow to fly over affected areas and keep an eye on the response.

President Obama also has named a special independent commission to review what happened. The visits from top Obama chiefs come as BP said it will be at least Tuesday before engineers can shoot mud into the blown-out well at the bottom of the Gulf, yet another delay in the effort to stop the oil. As the spill spreads deeper into vulnerable marshes, some have called for federal officials to take over the response. (More British Petroleum stories.)