AMERICAblog: The real reason Judd Gregg dropped out?
cwazycajun
· 9 months ago
how is it that a bunch religious extreamist can block the nomination of a democratic governors pick to fill a senate seat?? I think it had more to do with a threat by the oxylush ,impballs crowd and that ilk plus not haveing control over the census and redistricting...but thats just me..not to mention trying to embarrass obama
Rob Mule
· 9 months ago
I agree...No nutty opinions (like mine)...But, the REAL reason Senator Gregg just suddenly realized the world inhabiting the viewing area around his eyeballs. The Rethugs do have a record of strong arm tactics of the darkest sort and a decade and more long list of characters completely at ease in blackmail situations like Deborah Jean Palfrey, Bulldog Gannon, Bill Paxon, Bob Michael and reams of sex freaks from the texting Congressman to the diapered Senator...too many for a little comment space.
Why would that be the case? You didn't link to any article suggesting such a motive, so I'm left to assume you've pulled the idea out of thin air. I doubt that is the case, though. While the religious folks do have gender issues, electing or having a woman in the Senate is not one of them. See Hutchinson, Kay Bailey, from Texas.
Rob Mule
· 9 months ago
Kay's a woman???? Thanks. I always put a lot of faith in her Adam's apple...
John Aravosis
· 9 months ago
Do you honestly think I'm suggesting that I have information that she's a closet woman?
sittenpretty
· 9 months ago
OT...of course YOU WILL NEVER READ THIS in an American paper they are stockpiling oil offshore,cause prices are3/4 lower tan last summer 34 bucks a barrel
Oil prices face bigger hit as U. S. storage hub brims More profit in holding crude than refining it Joshua Schneyer, Reuters Published: Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Dwindling fuel demand, with the United States mired in recession, has led to a record oil supply glut at the world's largest storage site --a factor that could soon trigger another fall in crude prices.
Inventories at the storage hub at Cushing, Okla.--the delivery point for U.S. crude futures--have surged a whop-ping 139 per cent to near the available capacity since early October, as sliding energy demand makes holding oil more profitable than refining it.
Analysts say that once the hub's tanks fill to the limit --which at current rates could happen any time--the scramble by suppliers to unload excess barrels could knock already depressed U. S. crude benchmark prices down further. Dwindling fuel demand across North america has led to an oil supply glut, which could drive down crude prices even further.View Larger Image View Larger Image Dwindling fuel demand across North america has led to an oil supply glut, which could drive down crude prices even further. Herald Archive, Agence France-Presse, Getty Images Email to a friendEmail to a friendPrinter friendlyPrinter friendly Font:
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"Producers would have to offer massive discounts for prompt crude," said Nauman Barakat, senior vice-president at Macquarie Futures USA in New York.
"Prices might fall back to lows around $33 (a barrel)."
Crude for March delivery on the New York Mercantile Ex-change was around $41 a barrel on Monday.
Traders profit at Cushing, where tanks dot the landscape midway between Tulsa and Oklahoma City, by storing oil and committing it for sale later. But some eager to squirrel away crude are now being turned away because Cushing tanks are so full, industry sources said.
Constant Comment
· 9 months ago
Or what about the fact that one of his top staffers has an Abramoff problem?
KarenMrsLloydRichards
· 9 months ago
That's spelled: K-O-O-N-C-E.
And he's gonna finger Judd Gregg.
sittenpretty
· 9 months ago
sorry sloppy fingers meant to edit it
Milo
· 9 months ago
The "problem" is not simply that she is a woman. The issue is that she is rumored to be a woman who prefers the company of other women. How could the right stop her? By having Gregg withdraw his name. Simple.
Indigo
· 9 months ago
The real reason Judd Gregg dropped out is because he got cold feet. He realized suddenly and horribly that he would have to stand on his own, account for his opinion and deeds openly, and work with facts that run contrary to his ideological notions. He recognized the truth behind Colbert's witticism that "facts have a notoriously liberal bias." He isn't enough of an adult to work with that.
John Aravosis
· 9 months ago
I don't buy it. At the age of 61, a senior Washington politician did not suddenly realize, a week after taking a job, that he might disagree with his boss?
Indigo
· 9 months ago
In that case, this cryptic issue is something far more "telling" than the private life of a possibly closeted lesbian. Does Senator Gregg have clandestine issues? Any pages in the back room? A connection to Madoff that hasn't made the official list? A reason for concern about the infamous dry creek beds of Virginia or Maryland?
sukabi1
· 9 months ago
the connection is Abramoff, and one of his top aides from the last go round (2002-2004) was arrested and indicted a week or so ago, for trading legislative favors for goodies.
Warning, slurs are frequently used in the program. Wingers confuse widespread social trends with the work of one of their secret cabals...
interlude
· 9 months ago
let me get this right: Congress and the administration are made up of Repubs, Obama dems, Clinton Dems, and DINOs. perhaps in a moment of actual bipartisanship Obama could appoint an actual Progressive to something?!
NOPE ,than can ONLY limit,the hard working people who MAKE STUFF their pay is to be limited ,by the oligarchs
frank
· 9 months ago
I'm glad Obama got a slap in the face maybe now the pragmatist will get some cojones and start beating back the thugs back into their cages.
CDS2
· 9 months ago
Seems to me he resigned because the job responsibilities changed from when he accepted the job. He might have felt that he was not going to be trusted.
HereinDC
· 9 months ago
Makes Gregg look bad...real bad.....(and Repigs too) And makes Obama even a better person....we now know he tried....tried hard to get a Repig....so all in all....Obama comes out better.
HereinDC
· 9 months ago
Rove has dirt on EVERYONE.... Somethings up.
Peaches
· 9 months ago
Someone on Daily Kos is suggesting he has a Jack Abramoff problem.
To me this was a political suicide attack from the republicans. Just look at his record for trying to get rid of the Commerce. And the republicans knew Judd was not going to run again for his seat. This was just to make points with the public.
cjfb
· 9 months ago
I don't think you're right about Bonnie Newman and the speculation isn't fair to her. She may be in the closet but she is much loved by the people of New Hampshire and even Judd Gregg isn't evil enough to head back to senate because of Repubs fear of gay rights Or maybe I should say that he would be too selfish to give up Commerce because of this. He doesn't care much about gay rights one way or another.
I'll bet it ends up being because of Abramoff connections.
GustavMahler
· 9 months ago
read the KOS link, Gregg has Abramoff connections, he went golfing in Scotland with McConnell and Ashcroft.
News Nag
· 9 months ago
Every deceit inevitably allows important clues to rise to the surface, like bubbles from an underwater fart. Here is my guess:
The whole thing was a Republican trojan horse in the first place, with the end game being control of the census. Here's why.
1. Rovian Republicanism, as well as the competitive continuation of the Republican Party in national electoral politics, necessitates as much manipulation of voting registration and the casting and counting of ballots as they can get away with. A given.
2. Since Gregg is now known to have met with GOP leadership prior to his resignation, it becomes fairly clear that he would have also met with them PRIOR to soliciting the Commerce position for himself. In fact, I find it likely that GOP leadership may have recruited Gregg in the first place as the most likely GOP candidate to be nominated by Obama, this in attempt to gain control of the census; or at the least GOP leadership was on board with Gregg's decision after the fact for reasons of the census.
3. Someone in GOP leadership suggested that the census was the tipping point for Gregg's decision to withdraw, this to me being the freudian-type slip of the truth, the biggest fart bubble of all. Once they discovered that Gregg wouldn't be in charge of the census, their whole ploy became pointless and a political plus for Obama without the devious benefit for GOP's designs on the census.
4. After all, Gregg sought out the Commerce position, the census function was being removed from Commerce, and Gregg withdraws from Commerce. Seems pretty clear, though, of course, I'm sure fundies and New Hampshire Republicanism exerted their own pressures, which may or may not have played a significant role.
I mean, really, why WOULDN'T the GOP have tried this ploy? Obama seemed to be setting himself up for it. Looks like the GOP misunderestimated Obama yet again.
Upland_Oddball
· 9 months ago
This may again prove that the theocratic right owns today's GOP. Pope Benedict and his holocaust denying ilk would be as snug as a bud in a rug with this party.
caphillprof
· 9 months ago
Is anybody else tired of BI PARTISAN nonsense?
sukabi1
· 9 months ago
yeah, about 8 years ago... about the time bush announced he was going to work in a bipartisan fashion and then proceeded to cut out all talks / consultation with everyone except Lieberman...
jc
· 9 months ago
Def...its the point of having two parties. One is right most of the time and the other is wrong. One is good one is evil. I won't elaborate which is which
sukabi1
· 9 months ago
I'm hoping he's seeing an orange jumpsuit and shiny silver handcuffs in his future as a result of his indicted aide cooperating with the feds in the ongoing Abramoff saga... and I'm holding out hope that that is the cause of his "change of heart"... his aids arrest / indictment is less than a month old after all, it's just about the right timing for him to have offered up a bit of cooperation for a reduced charge.
maudgonne
· 9 months ago
He hasn't waved a magic wand and solved the economic crisis. Since his inauguration barely three weeks ago – an interval that already feels in some ways like three years – Wall Street has tumbled further. The right accuses him of being a socialist, the left complains he's too centrist. Elements of both say he's ill-prepared and naïve. "Amateur Hour", blared a headline in The Washington Post, summing up a widespread first impression of the 44th president at work. The truth is rather different. Mercifully, the giddy euphoria of victory is no more. Inevitably, in febrile hyperventilating Washington, DC, the pendulum has now swung towards disappointment. In truth however Barack Obama has got off to a good start. Events may yet derail him, but the promise of his presidency is no less now than it was on that 4 November night in Chicago's Grant Park, when all things seemed possible. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentato...
Gridlock
· 9 months ago
Yeah, going hat in hand to the Rethugs, giving them almost 50% of his first bill and then having them slam the door shut, and presiding over a gutten, toothless final bill... that's starting off real well.
JT
· 9 months ago
The Republicans are only concerned about regaining power. They are organized and move with a single mind. As such they will oppose and sabotage everything they can in an effort to bring the country even further down just so they can blame Obama and the democrats. Our democratic leadership need to grow some balls and call out the Republicans for what they are!
AdrianBrowne
· 9 months ago
Gregg's story is as about as believable as Ashley Todd's (the young woman that claimed an assailant carved a "B" into her face).
dad
· 9 months ago
judd gregg is a republican.
republican's have no spine.
Rob Mule
· 9 months ago
Anyone worrying a crushed Gregg could put on a diaper and go on a multi-state spree ala Lisa Nowak???
sukabi1
· 9 months ago
Naw, he's a Republican so he'll put on a diaper and call the local whorehouse because he's in need of a spanking...
jc
· 9 months ago
I am not an expert on body language but he just seems like he didn't want to drop out--look at this posture--its like a schoolboy having to do something he doesn't want to do. I think they have something on him. They being the GOP.
EmGD
· 9 months ago
Listen, I'm sure it was just the fact that he realized obvious truths that he was aware of for years that caused him to pull out. Plus he really wanted to taste what it was like to go down in ignominious defeat in his home state in 2010. Plus, there's just the whole switchover from being a Republican to being expected to conduct yourself with dignity and run a government organization based on reason and facts. It's too much for one man to handle.
the thing is... he also announced yesterday that he wouldn't be seeking reelection in 2010, so whatever it is, he's changing his ENTIRE career path... pretty strange thing to do on such short notice.
phillydem
· 9 months ago
While I think Gregg's comments yesterday were sincere, I also think a major reason is the 2010 census. Once the Obama administration decided to take the census away from Gregg at Commerce, that probably pushed him to opt out of the job. If Gregg had gone to Commerce, he would have been in a position to help the GOP by opposing changes to the census designed to capture people the current physical census misses or undercounts..
sukabi1
· 9 months ago
but it doesn't explain his announcement that he wasn't going to be running for reelection in 2010.
wearing out my F key
· 9 months ago
you want to know the REAL reason gregg dropped out? well- i've been doing a little research and i think i've cracked this one wide open. stick with me, because this gets complicated.
judd gregg began his political carreer as a small-time con man in joliet, illinois. gregg and his accomplices tom daschle and manage to swipe $11,000 in cash from an unsuspecting victim (a "mark"). In the wake of this apparent success, daschle tells gregg that he's retiring from his life of crime and moving to k street to work in a "mostly legal" business with his brother-in-law. He advises greggr to seek out an old friend, george w bush, in crawford, who can teach him the art of the 'big con'.
unfortunately for the three con artists, the mark they robbed was rod blagojevich, who was working as a numbers racket courier at the time, and was transporting the money to chicago for obama. rahm emanuel confronts gregg, demanding a $2,000 cut of the $11,000 and reveas obama's involvement. realizing that he and his partners are in danger, gregg pays rahm in counterfeit bills, having already gambled away most of his share of the money. gregg goes to warn daschle, but he arrives too late to save him from obama's hit man. with nowhere else to turn, gregg flees to crawford to ask bush for help in avenging daschle's murder.
wearing out my F key
· 9 months ago
by this time bush is a seemingly broken-down former president on the run from the FBI, living in the back of an amusement park that doubles as a tavern and brothel. He's initially reluctant to take on gregg because "revenge is for chumps," and also because the chicago gangster/banker/community organizer has a reputation for ruthlessly killing his enemies. bush nevertheless agrees to help gregg run a sting on obama, since he's touched when gregg says that he'll take obama on anyway "because i don't know enough about killin' to kill him." since obama is a shrewd man of few vices ("doesn't drink and he doesn't chase dames") and won't be taken in by a simple confidence scheme (he is a banker and knows the market), bush and gregg concoct an elaborate plan that involves casting gregg as the inside man in an off-track betting scam known as "the wire." the con men believe that this is ideal, since "the wire" is considered an out-of-date scam, and therefore unlikely to be recognized. a large number of con artists are required to create the atmosphere of the betting parlor; they are recruited from capitol hill, where con artists and grifters naturally congregate.
wearing out my F key
· 9 months ago
before the innauguration, bush's lover and partner in crime, condi rice, picks obama's wallet aboard the train ride to washington dc. bush poses as boorish texas bookie named "shaw" and buys his way into obama's private high-stakes poker game on the train with the latter's own money. bush bursts into the game late, feigning drunkenness, and proclaims to the other players, "sorry I'm late, I was taking a crap." bush, a cardsharp, and brilliant cheater, wins the first few hands and, through arrogance and deliberately mispronouncing obama's name as "ossama", goads him into cheating with a cold deck to "bust that bastard bookie in one play." bush anticipated this and out-cheats a shocked obama, who loses $15,000 in a single hand and, without his wallet, can't immediately pay the debt. ironically, bush says to obama not to come to a game if you don't have the money to pay for it while holding out latter's stolen wallet. surrounded by a table full of upper-crust (and purportedly legitimate) political donars, obama can't call bush on his cheating, since he only knew bush cheated because he cheated as well, and so has to sit and take it while bush grins in knowing satisfaction.
bush tells obama that he will "send a boy" to his room to collect the money, who turns out to be judd greg, posing as a disgruntled employee of shaw's, and calling himself "kelly."
wearing out my F key
· 9 months ago
at this point, "kelly" plays on obama's desire for revenge by asking for his help to break "shaw" and take over his business. gregg convinces obama the best way to do this is to appoint him as sec of commerce... and then gregg can use the beurocracy of the us government to win large sums of money in "shaw's" off-track betting (otb) establishment by past-posting. all of this, including the otb parlor itself, is really an immense hoax crafted solely for hoodwinking obama: the supposed play-by-play comes from a surplus tickertape wire, which an accomplice in the back reads into a microphone to make it sound as if it were live on the radio;
obama's "tip" horse wins, of course. gregg and bush hope that it convinces obama to bet a large amount on his next attempt, but obama is cautious, and "wants to see it again", resulting in "the shut out" on his second attempt.
wearing out my F key
· 9 months ago
In addition to luring obama into this con (as kelly), and eluding the assassins obama has sent to kill him (as gregg), judd must continually avoid rahm, who has followed him to washington, looking for either his cut of the original $11,000 or revenge on gregg for cheating him. rahm's efforts are derailed when fbi agents make their presence known to him and gregg. rahm is brought into a warehouse serving as a front for fbi operations. special agent Patrick Fitzgerald is discussing strategy with another agent... but rahm can't hear what they're saying at first. rahm observes while special agent fitzgerald coerces gregg into helping them capture obama. rahm is to be part of that operation also.
wearing out my F key
· 9 months ago
meanwhile, obama has grown frustrated with his men's inability to find and kill gregg, so he arranges for a professional killer, "billy o," to finish the job. (not having previously met gregg, obama is unaware that judd and "kelly" are the same person). a mysterious figure with black leather gloves is soon seen following and observing gregg. more on that later!
back at the otb, the con continues as obama is "shut out from the betting window when he intends to place a bet much bigger than the phony wire set-up can cover, so the window is closed as the race begins, just as obama is stepping up to bet. his intended horse does "win", however, further convincing him of the effectiveness of the method, and the benefits such a scheme could have on the struggling economy.
wearing out my F key
· 9 months ago
did i mention that gregg had started a romance with junior senator from california barbra boxer? because that's kind of important. see? it's not just a story of smoky-back-room-political corruption-and-back-stabbing. it's a love story, too.
wearing out my F key
· 9 months ago
that brings us to yesterday morning when the pieces of the elaborate puzzle came together in order to swindle obama. the action begins:
wearing out my F key
· 9 months ago
gregg wakes up alone after spending the night with barbra, and begins walking to work. gregg sees barbra coming toward him, but not the black-gloved man behind him, aiming a gun in his direction. The bullet hits barbra boxer in the forehead and kills her instantly.
It turns out that barbra boxer was the hired assasian, and "the man in the black gloves" was, in fact, hillary clinton all along. (those pants suits can fool you, if you don't look carefully enough)
hillary, who was hired by bush to protect gregg, drives him to work, then dumps barbra's body in a local park, writes a quick note to make it look like a suicide, then heads back to capitol hill to destroy any remaining evidence.
wearing out my F key
· 9 months ago
After getting word from kid twist to "place it" on a particular horse, obama brings a briefcase containing 700 billion dollars to bet on the horse to win. shaw/bush argues that the bet is too large, and that obama was mortgaging our children's future, for which obama calls him a "gutless cheat". shaw/bush, feigning stung pride, accepts the bet.
wearing out my F key
· 9 months ago
kid twist (in his western union persona) sits down and quietly asks obama how it's going. obama smugly informs him that he has "700 really really large" on the horse to win. Kid Twist feigns shock and tells him he was supposed to bet on the horse to "place", as it's going to finish second. The angry obama rushes to the window and demands his money back from mild-mannered con man "Fast eddie" gellepsie, who argues that, as the race has (supposedly) begun, it is against the rules.
wearing out my F key
· 9 months ago
just then the fbi and Fitzgerald burst in and order everyone to freeze. in the noise and the chaos, fitzgeald steps up to shaw/bush and quietly (compared with the ambient noise in the room) says, "hello, george - it's been a long time."
wearing out my F key
· 9 months ago
Fitzgerald then gestures to gregg and says, "you can go," revealing to all that gregg had betrayed obama, and never intended to be sec of commerce. gregg starts walking toward the door, but bush pulls a gun and shoots gregg in the back; fitzgerald then shoots bush in the heart and orders secret service to get obama out of there. obama realizes that, for the sake of his reputation, he can't be involved in this incident, but he's torn, because he's just wasted billions upon billions of tax payers money, as he tries to explain to Fitzgerald while the secret service whisks him away.
wearing out my F key
· 9 months ago
with obama safely away, Fitzgearld leans over gregg's body and says, "he's gone!" gregg opens his eyes and gets up, as does bush, to the cheers and laughter of the rest of the group. not only have obama been "stung", so have the american people. bush expresses as much as "Fitzgerald" helps him up: "nice con. i thought you were feds myself, when you first came in." gregg and bush then proceed to nonchalantly walk out of the alley way, as the rest of the players and members of the sting strip the room of its contents before obama and his men can come back to retrieve the money.
wearing out my F key
· 9 months ago
As gregg leaves, bush offers him his share of the take. gregg refuses, saying the best thing to do with that money is to give it back to the people in the form of tax cuts.
scooter in brooklyn
· 9 months ago
i smell an abramoff connection. there have been pieces posted at kos and tpm about this over the past two weeks.
triple7s
· 9 months ago
Oh goodie, hope it's true. LOVE it when another one bites the dust.
Naja pallida
· 9 months ago
I personally don't see how Gregg wheeling and dealing for his senate seat is any different than what Rod Blagojevich tried to do, and I have a feeling this was going to suddenly become a big issue once he actually stepped out of his senate seat. This would force the governor to actually to make his own choice, as the law says he is supposed to. Of course, that choice would most likely be someone who agrees politically with the governor, and most likely be a Democrat. Or, they're just afraid the governor would not honor the agreement flat out, which in no way could he be obligated to - other than because he said he would.
Sister Faith
· 9 months ago
Maybe someone needs to check his tax return......
SBJules
· 9 months ago
I thought it was Gregg's stance on the census. Our President wants to actually count everyone and Gregg doesn't.
bluestockton
· 9 months ago
That's what they said on "Countdown" -- that the Obama administration is giving the Hispanic lobby something it's long wanted, a promise to count resident aliens as well as citizens. No one can be a Republican without taking a hard line on immigration. Gregg probably doesn't know or like any Hispanics except Mel Martinez and Linda Chavez.
Leave it to a New England Republican to have a thoroughly boring (i.e. no sex, no unpaid taxes) reason for turning down a Cabinet post.
Yes! I'm convinced this is much closer to the truth of why Gregg dropped out. I think the point people are missing here is that he didn't just withdraw from the Commerce position. He also has withdrawn from the Senate race in 2010.
So he's just not going back to what he was doing so there's no way this is a "screw you, Obama" message. He's dropping out of politics entirely. This is a guy trying to save his ass from a very thorough public examination. I would bet he's also lawyered up.
ogre
· 9 months ago
yep. That's the most plausible explanation for the whole picture.
Johnny
· 9 months ago
I'm curious if his withdrawal has anything to do with what the State of New Hampshire did recently... basically telling the Federal Government to back the hell off or else: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/200...
James K. Sayre
· 9 months ago
"Poor Judd is dead, poor Judd is dead..." from the musical movie, Oklahoma, 1955.
lilybart
· 9 months ago
thanks for that chuckle
K Ols
· 9 months ago
Maybe the entire thing was a set up to embarrass Obama. The Rs may have put him up to putting forth his name for commerce because they knew he didn't plan to run for office again. They could get some inside information on Obama and the Dems plans and embarrass him by withdrawing after getting the appointment. Still there is the census thing wouldn't you think Obama or someone in his administration would have known about Gregg's vote to eliminate commerce? Maybe the point of putting himself forward for the position was to gain control of how the census is handled too. Taking the census away would also diminish Gregg's power. Yes, it is also suspicious why he doesn't plan to run again. Something was up with this from the get go.
jiminportlandoregon
· 9 months ago
Frankly, John, I agree with you that we deserve to know the truth about a lot of things, but I also accept the fact that we will never know the truth about many of those things. There is definitely good news here; Judd Gregg is not by any stretch of the imagination a "moderate". I cannot imagine what Obama was thinking when he nominated him. Enough with this bipartisan bullshit. The Repugs lost big and they need to have their noses rubbed in it - in much the same manner as they did to the Dems in 1994 and continued doing it until 2006. I am opposed to being mean spirited just for the hell of it, but by the same token, I would not bend over backwards to placate any of them - and that includes Snowe, Specter and especially Collins. As far as I'm concerned, their only objective is to see Obama fail big so they stand a chance in 2010. Fuck them. They lost. I don't give a shit what they think about anything. While I'm ranting, I will also say I am sick and fucking tired of seeing those two closet cases - Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham - whining about how wasteful the stimulus bill is. If they're so fucking conerned about waste, where the hell have they been for the last eight years? They're terrified that Obama and Dems will be successful and that they will be stomped further in 2010. I do not put anything past any of them and I believe they will do anything under the sun to sabotage Obama - at the risk of harming America.
Arthurkc
· 9 months ago
It Was the CENSUS...and all the insiders know this.
Here is the skinny. The Constitution, Art. I, Sec. 2, requires the census every ten years to count the "whole number of [free] persons" and the census is run by the Commerce Department. The Obama administration insists that the "whole number" means counting everybody, literally everyybody. Hispanics objected vociferiously to the appointment of Gregg because of his long-standing opposition to any acknowledgement of illegals in the country. So, the Administration proposed to move the Census Bureau out of the Department of Commerce and run it from the White House. Gregg objected and saw that this was the first of several major policy differences with the Obama administration that would likely cause him to compromise his conservative principles. And, because the census is so important to electoral redistricting, the Administration had stood firm and Gregg withdrew.
CDS2
· 9 months ago
I think you are absolutely correct. Just think what this country would be like if one political party or another was in control of the census. Say goodby to the two party system.
Steve_in_CNJ
· 9 months ago
In an interview with CNBC today, Gregg suggested that the census procedures weren’t much of an issue to him. “The way it was explained to me is that the Census would still report to the Commerce Secretary, but the White House wanted to have a major interest in the census process also,” he said. Gregg even praised the White House:
GREGG: The person that the White House has proposed to manage the Census, Ken Pruitt, did it in 2000 when I was chairman of the Appropriations Committee that had oversight over Commerce Dept. And I thought he did an excellent job. So I thought the people were going to be in place to do a pretty good census.
-----------------
If the 2-party system could survive turning the US attorneys into a political terror squad, it could probably survive an accurate count of our city populations.
CDS
· 9 months ago
I'm sure no one has a problem with an "accurate" count of our city populations. However, some of us might have a problem with an 'estimated' count of our city populations.
lilybart
· 9 months ago
so since we know that Gregg ASKED for the commerce job, was it ONLY to influence the census? And then when he couldn't corrupt it for the GOP, they told him to withraw?
ogre
· 9 months ago
Look at the WHOLE picture:
Gregg withdraws. Ignore the smokescreening; he alo stated that it was for personal reasons, and that it had nothing to do with anything FOUND in the background check. Gregg announced he has no intention of running again for his seat--in 2010.
So he's declining a Cabinet post over differences in the stimulus bill (bullshit detector pegs) and over the census? And yet returning to the Senate he announces he will not run again?
Something blew up--or is in the process of blowing up. He knows that it will erupt and that being up for confirmation would only accelerate it Since it's something that didn't come up in the background check, it's coming from an obtuse angle. But he expects that it would be fatal electorally too--and is thus anouncing he won't run NOW, to get out ahead of it. That way, whatever it is won't be as much news (lame duck senator), and maybe he can negotiate a relatively quiet settlement of his problem and have his quiet departure suffice. I'm guessing that the corruption cancer involving Abramoff is the best bet.
KarenMrsLloydRichards
· 9 months ago
yep--and the stupids in corporate media are swallowing the GOP spin of Gregg=Thomas More hook, line, and sinker.
landreau
· 9 months ago
John-- Buncha folks, including Marcy Wheeler at FDL and dengre at Kos, think it's Abramoff-related. Lotsa smoke from that direction. When Gregg resigned, that was the first thing I thought of, too.
BRG
· 9 months ago
I think it is time for the President to drop this outreach to Republicans. If I was him, I would develop an open door policy. For any Republican that want to deal with the President, the door to the Oval Office is open. The President of the United States should not have to grovel to Republicans to gain their support and vice versa if the President was a Republican. I give credit to President Obama because he wanted to operate a little different compared to past presidents but the opposition is trying to keep their day jobs. They do not want to be unemployed like the rest of us.
Waltt
· 9 months ago
Gregg and Obama just aren't compatible policy-wise, and our commerce regulation would have been very sluggish. Who do you want to see get the position? I would love it if Dean Baker get the job. I just read his article in the new book Thinking Big called "From Financial Crisis to Opportunity". I think that he really understands that this financial crisis was at the heart caused by the few trying to make themselves wealthy - and that he's tuned in to the greater good. It's someone with that kind of sensibility that would be compatible with Obama's plans. Dean Baker has a podcast about the economy coming up on Feb. 19th.
kspena
· 9 months ago
Might Judd Gregg be coming under investigation in the Abramoff affair?
All Comments
The Rethugs do have a record of strong arm tactics of the darkest sort and a decade and more long list of characters completely at ease in blackmail situations like Deborah Jean Palfrey, Bulldog Gannon, Bill Paxon, Bob Michael and reams of sex freaks from the texting Congressman to the diapered Senator...too many for a little comment space.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/l...
http://planetsean.blogspot.com/2004/04/powerclo...
Thanks. I always put a lot of faith in her Adam's apple...
they are stockpiling oil offshore,cause prices are3/4 lower tan last summer 34 bucks a barrel
Oil prices face bigger hit as U. S. storage hub brims
More profit in holding crude than refining it
Joshua Schneyer, Reuters
Published: Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Dwindling fuel demand, with the United States mired in recession, has led to a record oil supply glut at the world's largest storage site --a factor that could soon trigger another fall in crude prices.
Inventories at the storage hub at Cushing, Okla.--the delivery point for U.S. crude futures--have surged a whop-ping 139 per cent to near the available capacity since early October, as sliding energy demand makes holding oil more profitable than refining it.
Analysts say that once the hub's tanks fill to the limit --which at current rates could happen any time--the scramble by suppliers to unload excess barrels could knock already depressed U. S. crude benchmark prices down further.
Dwindling fuel demand across North america has led to an oil supply glut, which could drive down crude prices even further.View Larger Image View Larger Image
Dwindling fuel demand across North america has led to an oil supply glut, which could drive down crude prices even further.
Herald Archive, Agence France-Presse, Getty Images
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"Producers would have to offer massive discounts for prompt crude," said Nauman Barakat, senior vice-president at Macquarie Futures USA in New York.
"Prices might fall back to lows around $33 (a barrel)."
Crude for March delivery on the New York Mercantile Ex-change was around $41 a barrel on Monday.
Traders profit at Cushing, where tanks dot the landscape midway between Tulsa and Oklahoma City, by storing oil and committing it for sale later. But some eager to squirrel away crude are now being turned away because Cushing tanks are so full, industry sources said.
And he's gonna finger Judd Gregg.
http://www.hrcactioncenter.org/campaign/thankst...
Warning, slurs are frequently used in the program.
Wingers confuse widespread social trends with the work of one of their secret cabals...
perhaps in a moment of actual bipartisanship Obama could appoint an actual Progressive to something?!
Executive pay limits absent from stimulus.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar...
Impressive to say the least.
And makes Obama even a better person....we now know he tried....tried hard to get a Repig....so all in all....Obama comes out better.
Somethings up.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/2/13/320...
I'll bet it ends up being because of Abramoff connections.
The whole thing was a Republican trojan horse in the first place, with the end game being control of the census. Here's why.
1. Rovian Republicanism, as well as the competitive continuation of the Republican Party in national electoral politics, necessitates as much manipulation of voting registration and the casting and counting of ballots as they can get away with. A given.
2. Since Gregg is now known to have met with GOP leadership prior to his resignation, it becomes fairly clear that he would have also met with them PRIOR to soliciting the Commerce position for himself. In fact, I find it likely that GOP leadership may have recruited Gregg in the first place as the most likely GOP candidate to be nominated by Obama, this in attempt to gain control of the census; or at the least GOP leadership was on board with Gregg's decision after the fact for reasons of the census.
3. Someone in GOP leadership suggested that the census was the tipping point for Gregg's decision to withdraw, this to me being the freudian-type slip of the truth, the biggest fart bubble of all. Once they discovered that Gregg wouldn't be in charge of the census, their whole ploy became pointless and a political plus for Obama without the devious benefit for GOP's designs on the census.
4. After all, Gregg sought out the Commerce position, the census function was being removed from Commerce, and Gregg withdraws from Commerce. Seems pretty clear, though, of course, I'm sure fundies and New Hampshire Republicanism exerted their own pressures, which may or may not have played a significant role.
I mean, really, why WOULDN'T the GOP have tried this ploy? Obama seemed to be setting himself up for it. Looks like the GOP misunderestimated Obama yet again.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentato...
republican's have no spine.
http://thesebastards.blogspot.com/
judd gregg began his political carreer as a small-time con man in joliet, illinois. gregg and his accomplices tom daschle and manage to swipe $11,000 in cash from an unsuspecting victim (a "mark"). In the wake of this apparent success, daschle tells gregg that he's retiring from his life of crime and moving to k street to work in a "mostly legal" business with his brother-in-law. He advises greggr to seek out an old friend, george w bush, in crawford, who can teach him the art of the 'big con'.
unfortunately for the three con artists, the mark they robbed was rod blagojevich, who was working as a numbers racket courier at the time, and was transporting the money to chicago for obama. rahm emanuel confronts gregg, demanding a $2,000 cut of the $11,000 and reveas obama's involvement. realizing that he and his partners are in danger, gregg pays rahm in counterfeit bills, having already gambled away most of his share of the money. gregg goes to warn daschle, but he arrives too late to save him from obama's hit man. with nowhere else to turn, gregg flees to crawford to ask bush for help in avenging daschle's murder.
bush tells obama that he will "send a boy" to his room to collect the money, who turns out to be judd greg, posing as a disgruntled employee of shaw's, and calling himself "kelly."
obama's "tip" horse wins, of course. gregg and bush hope that it convinces obama to bet a large amount on his next attempt, but obama is cautious, and "wants to see it again", resulting in "the shut out" on his second attempt.
back at the otb, the con continues as obama is "shut out from the betting window when he intends to place a bet much bigger than the phony wire set-up can cover, so the window is closed as the race begins, just as obama is stepping up to bet. his intended horse does "win", however, further convincing him of the effectiveness of the method, and the benefits such a scheme could have on the struggling economy.
It turns out that barbra boxer was the hired assasian, and "the man in the black gloves" was, in fact, hillary clinton all along. (those pants suits can fool you, if you don't look carefully enough)
hillary, who was hired by bush to protect gregg, drives him to work, then dumps barbra's body in a local park, writes a quick note to make it look like a suicide, then heads back to capitol hill to destroy any remaining evidence.
Leave it to a New England Republican to have a thoroughly boring (i.e. no sex, no unpaid taxes) reason for turning down a Cabinet post.
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/02/12/an...
So he's just not going back to what he was doing so there's no way this is a "screw you, Obama" message. He's dropping out of politics entirely. This is a guy trying to save his ass from a very thorough public examination. I would bet he's also lawyered up.
Still there is the census thing wouldn't you think Obama or someone in his administration would have known about Gregg's vote to eliminate commerce? Maybe the point of putting himself forward for the position was to gain control of how the census is handled too. Taking the census away would also diminish Gregg's power.
Yes, it is also suspicious why he doesn't plan to run again. Something was up with this from the get go.
There is definitely good news here; Judd Gregg is not by any stretch of the imagination a "moderate". I cannot imagine what Obama was thinking when he nominated him. Enough with this bipartisan bullshit. The Repugs lost big and they need to have their noses rubbed in it - in much the same manner as they did to the Dems in 1994 and continued doing it until 2006. I am opposed to being mean spirited just for the hell of it, but by the same token, I would not bend over backwards to placate any of them - and that includes Snowe, Specter and especially Collins. As far as I'm concerned, their only objective is to see Obama fail big so they stand a chance in 2010. Fuck them. They lost. I don't give a shit what they think about anything.
While I'm ranting, I will also say I am sick and fucking tired of seeing those two closet cases - Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham - whining about how wasteful the stimulus bill is. If they're so fucking conerned about waste, where the hell have they been for the last eight years? They're terrified that Obama and Dems will be successful and that they will be stomped further in 2010. I do not put anything past any of them and I believe they will do anything under the sun to sabotage Obama - at the risk of harming America.
Here is the skinny. The Constitution, Art. I, Sec. 2, requires the census every ten years to count the "whole number of [free] persons" and the census is run by the Commerce Department. The Obama administration insists that the "whole number" means counting everybody, literally everyybody. Hispanics objected vociferiously to the appointment of Gregg because of his long-standing opposition to any acknowledgement of illegals in the country. So, the Administration proposed to move the Census Bureau out of the Department of Commerce and run it from the White House. Gregg objected and saw that this was the first of several major policy differences with the Obama administration that would likely cause him to compromise his conservative principles. And, because the census is so important to electoral redistricting, the Administration had stood firm and Gregg withdrew.
GREGG: The person that the White House has proposed to manage the Census, Ken Pruitt, did it in 2000 when I was chairman of the Appropriations Committee that had oversight over Commerce Dept. And I thought he did an excellent job. So I thought the people were going to be in place to do a pretty good census.
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If the 2-party system could survive turning the US attorneys into a political terror squad, it could probably survive an accurate count of our city populations.
Gregg withdraws. Ignore the smokescreening; he alo stated that it was for personal reasons, and that it had nothing to do with anything FOUND in the background check.
Gregg announced he has no intention of running again for his seat--in 2010.
So he's declining a Cabinet post over differences in the stimulus bill (bullshit detector pegs) and over the census? And yet returning to the Senate he announces he will not run again?
Something blew up--or is in the process of blowing up. He knows that it will erupt and that being up for confirmation would only accelerate it Since it's something that didn't come up in the background check, it's coming from an obtuse angle. But he expects that it would be fatal electorally too--and is thus anouncing he won't run NOW, to get out ahead of it. That way, whatever it is won't be as much news (lame duck senator), and maybe he can negotiate a relatively quiet settlement of his problem and have his quiet departure suffice. I'm guessing that the corruption cancer involving Abramoff is the best bet.