I can’t say I understand Obama’s appointment of Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) to his cabinet. The Democratic governor of New Hampshire has said he will appoint a placeholder Republican to finish Gregg’s term, meaning that the balance of the Senate does not change. So in exchange for the Democrats NOT getting 60 senators, a conservative now runs the Department of Commerce. Befuddling.
And this makes it even more confusing:
President Obama’s new candidate to run the Commerce Department voted in favor of abolishing the agency as a member of the Budget Committee and on the Senate floor in 1995.
Sen. Judd Gregg , R-N.H., whose nomination was expected to be announced Tuesday, also worked in the Senate to trim the department’s budget as head of the Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations Subcommittee…. The Senate version of the controversial measure envisioned spending cuts of more than $960 billion, almost half of it from Medicare and Medicaid.
Can someone explain this to me? The Republican replacing Gregg is supposedly more moderate, and Obama gets to tout his bipartisan bona fides. Is that it? Is that worth putting a budget hawk in charge of a federal department?
