Judd Gregg

Andrew Sullivan has an interest look at this affair, with the whole hockey pokey in Commerce.

Gregg Was Pwned

It gets clearer. When Judd Gregg approached the Obama administration to see if he could be a part of it, he was assuming that his own party wasn't going to adopt a policy of total warfare against the newly elected president in a time of enormous economic peril. Between that moment and the current all-out ideological assault on Obama, his position became untenable. His recusal on the stimulus package provoked fury at home (check out the comments here) and dyspepsia among the GOP who are intent on responding to an open hand with a clenched fist.

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Gregg And The GOP's War On Obama

Ambers and I discuss the Gregg pull-out, under partisan Republican pressure not to cooperate with the president...

The Census Canard

Again, this is not a real issue. It's an issue driven by the paranoid GOP base. The census has not been removed from the Commerce Department's purview, as Ambers explains below. And past censuses have long been conducted with coordination from the White House staff...

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This issue was championed by Republicans for the usual "the-darkies-are-taking-over!" reasons. And Gregg's broad support for the kind of stimulus bill Obama has just got through the conference is a matter of public record. So the real reason for Gregg's departure is that he simply couldn't handle the backlash from his own party for providing bipartisan cover for Obamanomics. I guess they believe that assaulting the new president as he tries to reach out is their ticket for future relevance. Hello to all this ...

So to sum.

The GOP Has Declared War On Obama

This much is now clear. Their clear and open intent is to do all they can, however they can, to sabotage the new administration (and the economy to boot). They want failure. Even now. Even after the last eight years. Even in a recession as steeply dangerous as this one. There are legitimate debates to be had; and then there is the cynicism and surrealism of total political war. We now should have even less doubt about what kind of people they are. And the mountain of partisan vitriol Obama will have to climb every day of the next four or eight years.