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Gregg Withdraws as Commerce Nominee

by VLOGZ | February 12, 2009 at 03:38 pm

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New Hampshire Republican Sen. Judd Gregg has withdrawn his name from consideration as President Obama's commerce secretary, a major blow to an administration seeking to put a series of Cabinet problems behind it.

In his written statement, Gregg cited recent developments regarding the economic stimulus package and the decision to have the next census director report directly to senior White House officials as evidence that he and President Obama were too different ideologically for the pairing to work. "This was simply a bridge too far for me," Gregg said of his decision.

Title 13 of the U.S. Code, Chapter 1, Subchapter I, § 2, entitled “Bureau of the Census,” states: “The Bureau is continued as an agency within, and under the jurisdiction of, the Department of Commerce.”

Not under the jurisdiction of Obama and Rahm Emanuel, but the Department of Commerce. The Director of the Census by law must be within the Department of Commerce and under the direction of the Senate approved Secretary of Commerce who then reports to the president.

According to the Chicago Daily Observer, the Secretary of Commerce will not report directly to Obama, but his designee — feared by Republicans to be Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Last week, Mary Ann Akers of the Washington Post cited a senior Republican Senate aide, who declared that letting the census “be run out of Rahm’s office is like putting PETA in charge of issuing hunting permits.”