Judd Gregg And The Fate of Bipartisanship in the Obama Era
On Thursday, on Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, President Obama’s own “team of rivals” lost some of its diversity when Senator Judd Gregg, the President’s choice for Commerce Secretary, withdrew his name for the position.
Gregg is a dyed-in-the-wool conservative from New Hampshire who, earlier in his career, advocated for the dissolution of the very agency Obama was asking him to lead–the Department of Commerce. Still, according to the Obama campaign, Judd campaigned heavily for the position, reassuring the Administration time and time again that he would put aside some past differences and support the President’s policies.
When Obama nominated him, the pundits roared, Democrats whimpered and the progressives whined. No one could see how this guy was going to advance the ball on Obama’s important agenda items given his ideological convictions. But, in light of Gregg’s child-like enthusiasm, President Obama decided to give him a chance. Without question, Gregg is thus far the most conservative official nominated by Obama for a leadership position in the Administration.
Early this week, however, as President Obama was riling crowds the nation over on the stimulus plan (about which Gregg was ambivalent), Gregg had a change of heart. “It has become apparent during this process that this will not work for me as I have found that on issues such as the stimulus package and the Census there are irresolvable conflicts for me,” Gregg stated yesterday as he announced his withdrawal.
From President Obama’s perspective, Gregg contributed Lincoln’s “team of rivals” concept and could potentially have operated as an effective go-between with Congress on trade-related initiatives. Assuming Gregg would close ranks with Obama on policy, Gregg’s presence would have cast Obama as bipartisan and diplomatic with little, if any, concomitant political sacrifice. But, in the final analysis, the ideological divide was just too wide. “Once it became clear after his nomination that Senator Gregg was not going to be supporting some of President Obama’s key economic priorities, it became necessary for Senator Gregg and the Obama administration to part ways,” said Obama Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.
In his withdrawal announcement, Gregg himself alluded to partisan disagreements over how to run the census, with the Obama Administration acting on concerns voiced by black and Hispanic leaders and Gregg toeing his own party line. The census is a very political issue because congressional districts are drawn according to population. The Commerce Secretary’s traditional authority over census procedures may have been what attracted Gregg to the job, and as a result Republicans in Congress may even have urged Gregg on for a time. But the Administration’s intent was to have the next census director report to senior White House officials as well as the commerce secretary, and when it became clear that Obama was not going to give on this point, Gregg saw no reason to stick around.
“I couldn’t be Judd Gregg and serve in the Cabinet. I should have faced up to the reality of that earlier,” Gregg said. Clearly, the census issues was the biggest sticking point for Republicans. Said GOP Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, “If President Obama doesn’t trust Sen. Gregg to oversee a fair and accurate census, he should withdraw the nomination.”
For his part, President Obama was surprised by Gregg’s announcement, but called the senator a “good man.”
I think it took Judd Gregg a while to realize he was about to sign up for a job in which Barack Obama would not only be his boss on paper, but intended actually to play the part. Gregg has been a Senator for upwards of 15 years, and was Governor of New Hampshire before that. He’s not used to having a boss, especially one with whom he does not agree on many matters. It was probably a recipe for disaster. It’s possible that the Chess Grandmasters on the Obama team realized this at the outset. Their plan may have been to invite Gregg on as a gesture of bipartisanship, but then, prior to confirmation,slowly to push his buttons on sensitive issues like the census to test him.
For many, the Gregg resignation raises questions about the fate of bipartisanship or “postpartisanship” in the Obama era. But while many are tagging ideology as the culprit here, the question may be a little more complicated. Perhaps Judd had no unresolvable disagreements with Obama on policy, but was rather offended by the Administration’s apparent intent to micromanage him, a sign of suspicion and distrust. Furthermore, Gregg has indicated that he may not seek reelection to the Senate in 2010, which suggests there are other reasons, perhaps personal, for his withdrawal.
But as Congress prepares to send a $787 billion stimulus to the Oval Office, President Obama is riding high on the hog. The bill will be an unprecedented victory for a President who’s been in office only a couple of weeks.
And so Judd Gregg may already be yesterday’s news. His withdrawal, however, is an important signal that the Obama team is standing firm on policy, intends closely to monitor the operations of its agencies, and remains unwilling to roll over in the name of bi- or post-partisanship.
Comments
By Ted on February 13th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Sen. Gregg withdrew because (1) Obama’s chutzpah crossed the line and (2) Obama CANNOT put away his “birth certificate” issue.
1. Here’s the chutzpah: The Republicans didn’t get their act together enough to challenge Obama for not being constitutionally qualified to be President as an Article 2 “natural born citizen” so Obama’s White House steals the census from the Commerce Department against the specific instructions of the constitution itself — “actual enumeration” under Article 1.
2. Here’s the “birth certificate” issue: Since Obama’s earnest drive to convince the nation to weaken its economic strength through redistribution as well as weaken its national defense, COUPLED WITH HIS UNPRECEDENTED WHITE HOUSE TAKEOVER OF DECENNIAL CENSUS TAKING FROM THE COMMERCE DEPARTMENT, has confirmed the very threats to our Republic’s survival that the Constitution was designed to avert, it no longer is sustainable for the United States Supreme Court to refrain from exercising WHAT IS ITS ABSOLUTE CONSTITUTIONAL DUTY TO DEFEND THE NATION FROM UNLAWFUL USURPATION. The questions of Obama’s Kenyan birth and his father’s Kenyan/British citizenship (admitted on his own website) have been conflated by his sustained unwillingnes to supply his long form birth certificate now under seal, and compounded by his internet posting of a discredited ‘after-the-fact’ short form ‘certificate’. In the absence of these issues being acknowledged and addressed, IT IS MANIFEST THAT OBAMA REMAINS INELIGIBLE TO BE PRESIDENT UNDER ARTICLE 2 OF THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION. Being a 14th Amendment ‘citizen’ is not sufficient. A ‘President’ MUST BE an Article 2 ‘natural born citizen’ AS DEFINED BY THE FRAMERS’ INTENT.
By Aaron Knapp on February 14th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Ted, thanks for your note, but it seems to me that you’re concentrating on ridiculously insignificant matters. It’s over dude, he’s President.
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