It is a tremendous disappointment that after accepting the offer to become Secretary of Commerce, suddenly Judd Gregg withdraws before the confirmation hearings, supposedly on grounds of principle.
This situation does not make Senator Gregg look very good in the public eye. If he had a problem originally with giving up his independence, he should have stated so at the outset, not leave President Obama in the lurch.Â
On the other hand, being a strong fiscal conservative made Gregg, as it turns out, a bad choice for the cabinet post, particularly because he would be presiding over the operation of the Census Bureau, when the time comes in April 2010 to do an accurate, unbiased counting of the American people, something which will affect government policies and the political balance for the next ten years.
A good piece of advice is for Obama to forget about any further bipartisanship in the cabinet, as he already has Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense and Ray LaHood as Secretary of Transportation. Let’s not forget that the Democrats won this last election, including substantial margins in both houses of Congress. We need someone who is a loyal Democrat to control the Census Bureau. The Republicans have benefited earlier from being in charge of the Census Bureau, so now it is time that the Democrats promote what is good for them after more than a decade out of power.