Another one (Judd Gregg) bites the dust

Posted By Peter Feaver Thursday, February 12, 2009 - 10:11 PM Share

By Peter Feaver

According to reports, Senator Gregg has withdrawn his name from the nomination to be Secretary of Commerce. At least so far, this seems all about policy. No rumors about tax delinquency, so far as I have heard (but, of course, I am out here in the boondocks and perhaps my Shadow colleagues traffic in juicier gossip!). 

Rather, this has something of the feel of l'affaire Inman, when a high-profile cabinet pick just could not bring himself to support the President in his bailiwick. Perhaps the emerging storyline will follow the old Inman line -- "what a strange thing for the nominee to do" -- but I would not bet on that.

This is, in fact, a tough blow for an Obama team that has had more than its fair share of cabinet nomination snafus. The fact that the issue is a principled one -- Gregg claims that he and Obama are "functioning from a different set of views on many critical items of policy" including the stimulus package and the Census -- does not lessen the blow, in my opinion.

First, it feels like one more dot to be connected in an emerging picture of a gang that cannot shoot straight. That may be unfair, but, ominously for any spin to the contrary, Gregg claims that, "Prior to accepting this post, we had discussed these and other potential differences, but unfortunately we did not adequately focus on these concerns."

Second, it draws attention to an issue that has so far not had much legs: Obama's flirtation with a decision to move the Census out of the Commerce Department and into the White House. If Karl Rove had tried something like that, it would create howls of protest about "politicizing science," in this case social science. There have been some quiet press queries about this, but the issue is only now getting attention. The Census move is the kind of issue that will likely not play well the closer it is studied, so the attention, from Obama's point of view, is unwelcome.

For my part, I hope the Gregg development will not mark the end of President Obama's efforts to reach across the aisle. Those efforts are difficult, and, ironically, the reasons Senator Gregg gives for the withdrawal only underscore the need. Right now, the country is not unified about how best to deal with the economic challenges we face.  Without Secretary of Commerce Gregg, it will be a bit harder to build consensus.

EXPLORE:OBAMA ADMINISTRATION
 

WOLFBOY

11:07 PM ET

February 12, 2009

Silly comparison

Of course it would create howls of protest if Karl Rove had tried to move the census into the White House. Quite properly so, because Rove would only be interested in the census as a way to increase the number of Republicans in the House. I trust we can all agree on that much, because truly nothing could be more plainly obvious.

In contrast, per your own links, any Obama discussion of this originated in the choice of a Republican senator to lead Commerce. Had Bush chosen a Democratic senator to lead Commerce, do you doubt he would have responded to similar concerns in a roughly similar way?

Please let's wait until Obama aides start defying congressional subpeonas related to possibly criminal conduct before suggesting that Rove's exploits were tame in comparison.

 

DRLAKE

6:42 PM ET

February 13, 2009

Since Judd Gregg was the one

Since Judd Gregg was the one who started this whole process by approaching the Obama administration about becoming Commerce Secretary, I'd say a bit more critical evaluation of his actions are warranted. This isn't a case of Obama's team screwing up, as you suggest here.

As for the Census, let's look at the record. If the Republican Party did not have such a sad history of trying to suppress voter turn out, including efforts to reduce funding for the Census so as to under-count African-Americans and other poor voters (which Gregg was part of) then this wouldn't be an issue. The unfortunate reality is that the Republican party would rather deny Americans fair representation than try to develop a broadly appealing agenda.

 

Shadow Government is a blog about U.S. foreign policy under the Obama administration, written by experienced policy makers from the loyal opposition and curated by Peter D. Feaver and William Inboden.

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