Why A Commerce Job Goes Unfilled

IBD Editorials ^ | February 13, 2009

[Kaslin]

Politics: Judd Gregg surprised the Obama administration by withdrawing from his Commerce job offer. But it shouldn't have been a surprise. Commerce itself is being devalued in this administration. That needs to change.

---

It's likely that the Republican senator from New Hampshire intended to be a brave, if lonely, voice for private business inside the Obama administration at a time when stimulus dominates the news and little focus was put on how to help business.

That's a shame, because a stimulus promises to create 3 million jobs at best, and currently 11.6 million people don't have work. Only the private sector can pick up the slack.

At least a dozen candidates turned the prestigious commerce secretary's post down before President Obama came up with Gregg, after assuring him that the Democratic governor in his home state would appoint a Republican to take his seat. Obama even joked about the difficulty of "finding a commerce secretary" to the media.

But the real reason why Gregg pulled out is probably that he found there isn't any real place for commerce in the new administration. With President Obama saying things like "only government" can save the economy, Gregg learned quickly he was unlikely to have any power or influence on behalf of the private sector.

The decision to remove the 2010 Census from the Commerce Department and give it to White House political operatives was a strong vote of no confidence in Gregg.

[FLCowboy,]

Interesting take on what really happened, and I for one believe it. After Obama's "I won" declaration, it is going to be a long 4 years of the White House running everything their way. I even think Biden's foray into foreign policy is going to drive a wedge between the White House and Hillary Clinton.

Obama for now at least, thinks he is King. We'll have to wait until the Reid/Pelosi partnership get tired oh him taking all the credit.

[FLCowboy,]

Interesting take on what really happened, and I for one believe it. After Obama's "I won" declaration, it is going to be a long 4 years of the White House running everything their way. I even think Biden's foray into foreign policy is going to drive a wedge between the White House and Hillary Clinton.

Obama for now at least, thinks he is King. We'll have to wait until the Reid/Pelosi partnership get tired oh him taking all the credit.

[jedi150]

I’d think it has more to do with Ron Brown and the Clinton’s than anything else.

[yldstrk]

everytime I point out how stupid Bambi is some dam Democrat has to tell me how “intelligent” Bambi is

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Gratitude to Jim Robinson for allowing me to post again. Gregg must have found out about some of the “real” philosophy and agenda of the Obama administration and wanted no part. Someone inform me, how many individuals have turned down an offered cabinet post in the Executive Branch? It has to be very few. The salary and benefits have to be tremendous not to mention the private sector opportunitites afterwards. Obama’s agenda has to be truly dangerous.

[ZOOKER]

They covered this story on NPR today (I know they suck, but it's opposition research - and I always turn the dial in disgust after 15-20 minutes). Amazing how there's two sides to every story, and NPR chose to air the OTHER ONE. They insinuated that Craig was involved in oversight of the 2000 census and attempted to skew the numbers. They used the insult that ends all liberal arguments: they called him a Right-Wing Conservative.

According to NPR, because of his sordid history, the WH thought it prudent to assume authority in the census.

You see the flaw, of course - if Craig was known to be a subversive, why offer him the job in the first place?

Oh, and by the way, there was no mention of how Craig's appointment would affect the balance of power in the Senate...

[diverteach]

Once again Odumbo thumbs his nose at the US constitution which clearly directs the secretary of commerce to conduct a census.

Can anything be achieved by protesting Odumbo’s plans for the 2010 census by not participating in mass?

Personally I’ve never participated. I find them way way way too intrusive and feel the govt has no business asking anything other than the amount of people under my roof.

[TASMANIANRED]

They just wanted a Republican to hang the failure on.

[PGalt]

Gregg made a principled move in leaving because he couldn't be effective.

Was Gregg aware of Obama's voting record in the senate? Why would a "principled" man take the job in the first place? His principles have already been determined in my book. I only question his intelligence.

[Brad from Tennessee]

Judd Gregg wasn't the only figurehead cabinet appointment. Geithner at Treasury proved in front of Congress and the World this week that he is clueless pretender. The Obama camp wanted a Treasury Secretary who wouldn't craft his own economic strategy but would instead simply take orders from the Oval Office. And Obama is working from a script others have written.

[cc2k]

diverteach wrote:

---

Once again Odumbo thumbs his nose at the US constitution which clearly directs the secretary of commerce to conduct a census.

---

I fight constitutional ignorance wherever I find it.

Here's a link to The United States Constitution. Please tell me where in that document it mentions the Secretary of Commerce?

diverteach wrote:

---

Can anything be achieved by protesting Odumbo’s plans for the 2010 census by not participating in mass?

---

Nothing good. They won't go out of their way to find conservatives to begin with. If you consider yourself conservitive, by avoiding it, you just make the liberal grip on power even stronger.

Somehow disrupting the Census in liberal strongholds could be a better tactic. The problem with that is it just gives them more justification to do what they will do anyway, which is going to be to inflate by "statistical sampling" the count in urban areas and all over blue states.

The Census is always political. It's about the electoral college as much as it's about Congress. If you can move 5 congressional seats from red states into solidly blue states, that also moves 5 more electoral votes into their column.

Oh, and it is also used to 'spread the wealth' through many federal programs. So there's financial incentive for the states to maximize their counts.

[Kaslin]

Exactly, and notice he didn't even bother to submit his own budget proposal which a real President normally does

[Kaslin]

The 0 intelligent?

This is all I have to say

[Kaslin]

I don’t know if you remember that many moonbats accused President Bush having supposedly said that the Constitution is just a damn piece of paper. Needless to say I did searches and I have never found that he did say such a thing