Boston Public Library president Bernard A. Margolis officially lost his job yesterday. It was a move Margolis had seen coming since last May, when Judith Kurland, Thomas Menino's chief of staff told him that his contract would not be renewed beyond its current term.

Freed from the constraints of office, Margolis told the Globe what he really thinks about Menino. He's a dummy. An "anti-intellectual" whose reign over Boston Margolis likened to Hugo Chavez's Venezuelan dictatorship.

Bostonist knows how much it sucks to get fired, but let's keep some perspective. Losing a $167,000 annual salary might seem like torture, but it's not.

The official Menino line has Margolis beefing up the Copley Square central library at the expense of neighborhood branches. But last week, the Phoenix called that a snow job. Apparently, Menino just had it in for Margolis, whose efforts to improve branch services were blocked by City Hall.

It sounds like an old fashioned reversal of political fortune. Margolis had held the presidency for ten years backed by powerful BPL trustees: former Globe publisher William Taylor and former Senate and UMass president William Bulger (Whitey's brother). Taylor's not a trustee anymore and Bulger's power has waned, shall we say. Politics being politics, Margolis was vulnerable to ouster.

His record at the BPL is unimpeachable: bigger circulation numbers and expanded services at all branches. Whether motivated by capricious animosity or not, it is now up to Menino to replace Margolis with someone just as competent and dedicated.

Freaky Holga image of BPL statuary tagged "bostonist" by Flickr user gooru