Gregg Fallout
Sen. Judd Gregg's decision to withdraw his nomination for Commerce Secretary has wide-ranging political ramifications.
The move interferes with Pres. Obama's efforts to secure congressional support for his stimulus package and forces the administration to find yet a third person to lead the agency; Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, the first nominee, withdrew amid rumblings of a pay-to-play scandal in his home state. The Obama team will also likely have to answer questions about a key point of difference between the administration and Gregg -- how best to manage the highly-political Census.
The Census, which falls under the auspices of the Commerce Department, is used in the redistricting process, and fearing that their political power would be marginalized or diminished, several minority groups had stepped forward to issue their discomfort with that responsibility falling to the Republican senator from New Hampshire. The White House responded by noting that the Census chief would report to the administration, not Gregg. But conservatives were miffed by the news, calling the move a blatant attempt to fold the redistricting process into the Democratic White House.
Moving forward, isn't the Obama administration providing conservatives with a major talking point if a Democrat is selected for Commerce and the Census is then "returned" to its once rightful place within the department? Or is Team Obama damned either way -- even if they pick a Democrat and stand firm by the decision to give the White House oversight? Then they're still co-opting the process -- and giving Republicans an opening to say that despite the Obama administration's promise of a new kind of politics, it's business as usual at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Meanwhile, Gregg took pains today to say in his statement that nothing had emerged in the vetting process to influence his decision, and he cited the Census disagreement as well as the stimulus package as points of difference between the camps that could not be overcome.
"It's all about the Census," said Republican strategist John Feehery. "Obviously the White House's decision to bring this in-house was the last straw for Gregg."
So Obama will fight the good stimulus fight for the next several days and return to square one to find a fitting Commerce Secretary. What of Gregg?
Some Granite Staters say he took the Commerce job as an easy and appealing way out of the Senate, to which he was elected in 1992.
"It's possible he took the appointment as a graceful way to leave the Senate with good travel," one Washington polical watcher tells On Call.
Jennifer Duffy, senior editor of the Cook Political Report in Washington, said she thinks the whole episode will serve Gregg well when he returns to newly left-leaning New Hampshire. She said he resumes his position in the Senate with the "Obama Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval." Gregg, should he decide to run again when his term expires in 2010, has now proven to Granite State voters that he is acceptable to a Democratic president.
"It'll be harder for (Democratic Rep. Paul) Hodes to push him too far to the right, harder to wrap President Bush around his neck," Duffy said.
Hodes, who has already announced his candidacy for Senate, issued a statement this afternoon affirming that he'll run no matter what Gregg decides.
"I am surprised and disappointed at this sudden withdrawal," Hodes said. "Senator Gregg would take us back to the years of George W. Bush rather than moving forward with the change agenda that the American people clearly want. ... I will be a candidate for the United State Senate in 2010. I look forward to working every day to stand up for New Hampshire as we come together to confront the economic crisis facing our nation."
(JENNIFER SKALKA)
This is a result of the bad karma Obama developed when he decided to politicize the U.S. Census and when he decided to ram a Socialist "stimulus" through using anti-bipartisan tactics.
This is the result of Obama's good karma-this appointment was going to provide many difficult ploicy disagreements and was a horrible mistake. Now he doen't have to manage Gregg and gets to have a Commerce Sec'y who won't be looking to stab him in the back. Obama did not decide to "Politicize the census"-his Democratic Party was outraged that he was thinking of handing such political power to a right-wing republican and demanded an accomodation.
But conservatives were miffed by the news, calling the move a blatant attempt to fold the redistricting process into the Democratic White House.
But it was okay for conservatives like Tom DeLay to use the redistricting process to gerrymander districts that were favorable to Republican control.
Bringing the Census to the White House was more like the tip of the iceberg rather than the last straw since Gregg had a high profile fight with President Clinton over funding the 2000 Census.
Between Gregg's conservatism and having voted to abolish the Commerce Department it was clear that he wasn't going to be a good fit for the Administration.
Obama should stick to filling Cabinet jobs with Democrats and keeping Republicans in Congress.