What rank hypocrisy! Where's the blame for tapping Yang for the job in the first place? For not pushing him out sooner? And for that matter, for not having a hot-swappable substitute in the executive ranks when Hollywood dude Terry Semel abruptly quit last year? Those are all grave transgressions to which Yahoo's directors ought to confess.

Chairman Roy Bostock should be first out the door. An old-school adman ridiculed within Yahoo as an "empty suit," Bostock has added nothing to the company. And he shredded any remaining credibility by brazenly lying to Newsweek about Jerry Yang's status as CEO, saying he was firmly ensconced in the job even as the board discussed his ouster.

Add to the list investors Ron Burkle, Gary Wilson, and Art Kern, whose ouster I called for earlier this year. Can anyone say what Yahoo has gotten from their collective 26 years on the board?

Corporate raider Carl Icahn, too, should make his stay on Yahoo's board brief and symbolic, a prize won for waging a fierce battle with Yahoo management over its failure to sell the company to Microsoft. He may have been right about Microsoft, but I can't believe he has the company's long-term interests at heart.

And Jerry Yang, who has been allowed to keep his board seat, should resign it. Yahoo needs a clean break from his mismanagement; a lingering presence will only hurt the company he professes to love.

Whoever Yahoo picks as its next CEO should make a priority of mucking out the boardroom; candidates for the job should demand that these six directors offer their resignation before they sign on the bottom line. Otherwise, the job will be untenable.

The rest of the board I'd recommend Yahoo's next CEO keep, at least for the time being. Frank Biondi and John Chapple are too new to pass judgment on; venture capitalist Eric Hippeau and Hewlett-Packard executive Vyomesh Joshi actually have knowledge of the marketplace that's valuable to Yahoo; and telecom exec Maggie Wilderotter is a credible candidate to step in as Yahoo's CEO, should the board choose one of its own.

Yahoo's failure-prone four had between 18.2 and 22.1 percent of shareholders withhold their votes for reelection. Board members who met with Valleywag's approval — Eric Hippeau, Vyomesh Joshi, Bobby Kotick, and Maggie Wilderotter — scored between 7.1 and 9.3 percent. Only in corporate America would a passive-aggressive move like declining to vote be deemed "activist." All the same, to those shareholders who sat this one out, we thank you for your fealty.

• Roy Bostock: This guy is chairman of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. Can you imagine anyone more out of touch with Yahoo's workforce?
• Art Kern: On the board since January 1996. Used to own some radio stations. Gives a lot of money to good causes. Great — how about you do that full-time, Art?
• Ron Burkle: Politically connected former grocery-store owner.
• Gary Wilson: Used to run Northwest Airlines. Shouldn't that be a disqualifier to do anything?

Memo to the rest of Yahoo's board: Hey, you're okay in our book! Let's do lunch!

TCI/3G are activist investors trying to get a minority slate elected to the CSX board (I think the vote is today). They ran 5 board members, including Gary Wilson (Yahoo board member). Wilson was the only one ISS/RiskMetrics didn't recommend shareholders to vote for. Other Yahoo board members will pay the price for these bungled negotiations for years to come.