Senator Judd Gregg
Following is Senator Gregg Statement on His Withdrawal for Consideration of Commerce Secretary
I want to thank the President for nominating me to serve in his Cabinet as Secretary of Commerce. This was a great honor, and I had felt that I could bring some views and ideas that would assist him in governing during this difficult time. I especially admire his willingness to reach across the aisle.
However, 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. Prior to accepting this post, we had discussed these and other potential differences, but unfortunately we did not adequately focus on these concerns. We are functioning from a different set of views on many critical items of policy.Obviously the President requires a team that is fully supportive of all his initiatives.
I greatly admire President Obama and know our country will benefit from his leadership, but at this time I must withdraw my name from consideration for this position.
As we move forward, I expect there will be many issues and initiatives where I can and will work to assure the success of the President’s proposals. This will certainly be a goal of mine.
Kathy and I also want to specifically thank Governor Lynch and Bonnie Newman for their friendship and assistance during this period. In addition we wish to thank all the people, especially in New Hampshire, who have been so kind and generous in their supportive comments.
As a further matter of clarification, nothing about the vetting process played any role in this decision. I will continue to represent the people of New Hampshire in the United States Senate.”
Senator Gregg is the third nominee to drop out of President Obama’s cabinet before being confirmed and would have been the third Republican in President Obama’s cabinet.
Chocolatecity.cc/blog is speculating that this fishy smell is either a vetting or census related issue. The 2010 Census will be critical to federal aid for states as well as congressional reapportionment. President Obama moved the census from the Commerce Department to the White House.
House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) criticized the Obama administration today for politicizing the census.
"The American people expect the Census to be fair, impartial and free of politics," he said. "And they expect us to protect the hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars the government distributes each year based on Census data. If this process is controlled by political operatives at the White House instead of experts and statisticians at the Census Bureau, Americans are right to lose confidence in it," he said.
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