Via email:
STATEMENT FROM PRESS SECRETARY
ROBERT GIBBS
“Senator Gregg reached out to the President and offered his name for Secretary of Commerce. He was very clear throughout the interviewing process that despite past disagreements about policies, he would support, embrace, and move forward with the President’s agenda. Once it became clear after his nomination that Senator Gregg was not going to be supporting some of President Obama’s key economic priorities, it became necessary for Senator Gregg and the Obama administration to part ways. We regret that he has had a change of heart”.
I guess this is somewhat embarrassing for Obama as this is his second attempt to fill the Commerce position. But it’s just fine by me. It would be nice if Obama could find a nice Democrat to fill the position.
I’m still available. And I’ve paid my taxes.
Outstanding. I second your nomination.
We need good sarcasm at Commerce. And you could decorate the lobby with your paintings.
With your support it’s a done deal.
is the right word. Gregg seems to say the idea was his.
At any rate, this gives Obama another opportunity to make the best possible choice for Commerce: Ralph Nader.
Who knows. Gibbs language isn’t clear.
All that’s missing is “Senator Gregg has decided to spend more time with his family.”
Hah! Don’t you think the GOP got to him?
The way Gregg did this was intentionally offensive. This ought to be a nail in the coffin of any attempt at bipartisanship. Obama should feel personally insulted.
I agree.
really there is no longer a need to be bipartisan with Republicans, because the Republicans consider any negotiation or cooperation as a weakness.
There has to be a good democrat somewhere, Jim Slattery?
imo, this asshat’s got some big skeletons in his closet, vis-a-vis the abramoff scandal.
my inner cynic says somebody, most likely rahm, calculated that they could use that as leverage in the future, and it blew up in their faces.
what the hell happened to the vaunted obama no drama machine?
either you’re going to be an agent of change, or you’re not. using smoky back room style politics for political advantage with one hand while professing to be about change on the other smacks of an administration already at odds with itself.
l am not impressed.
Bit by bit the gov’t is backing into a fit solution of the foreclosure issue:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29146768/
They want to buy loans at a discount and then reduce payments for the holder of the mortgage. Excellent.
This is what I’ve been begging for, just a bit excessively complicated in implementation.
Problem is the incredible volume of transactions and purchases required and changes of market conditions over time so that people will get very different treatment depending on when they happen to get processed.
Despite some additional problems, this style of intervention is exactly what we need. I think from a management perspective it would be simpler to pay off principal directly and by making your revaluations based on regional pools. Less transaction cost, less management cost, faster results and more even-handed treatment of ‘clients’.
Gregg could have Friday Night News Dumped this. Instead he said “Screw you!” to the President and then decided he wasn’t running in 2010 anyway.
Petulance? Incompetence? Vetting found something fugly? Who knows. But yes, I second the whole notion of bipartisanship.
You can’t negotiate with the fuckin’ Really Rotten Republicans.
mmm…
Laff – O – Lypics reference…
..gghghghlllll
Maybe it’s a no win job….a career killer.
.. or just a killer ..
RIP Ron Brown..
Obama looks as if he gets no thanks for being conciliatory and bipartisan, Republicans look as if they put party before the country, Obama gets another chance to appoint a decent Commerce Secretary, and Gregg probably won’t run again in 2010 – leaving that Senate race as a probable Democratic gain. What’s not to like?
I dunno. . . Fuck Gregg. Honestly, I thought he was a shitty choice. Gibbs’ statement is a subtle “fuck you”, imo. Personally, I hope Obama is adept enough to start playing real political hardball. Fuck ’em hard and fuck ’em good. But fuck ’em, regardless.
There is no need to make nice with the Republican leadership, they’re fucking dumb. Obama needs to pick off the Republican moderates and let the hard-core – disturbingly authoritarian, and somewhat fascist – “dead enders” hang themselves with the rope reasonable people keep giving them.
so let me get this stright.
obama offers gregg the commerce position.
gregg says “ok, but you have to replace me with another republican.”
Obama says “ok, I will do that.”
The new republican is appointed and gregg says “sike! irreconcilable differences.”
You may want to retitle your post to “Gregg Punks Obama Administration.”
All they need now is Ashton Kutcher to show up…hey, maybe he could be commerce secretary?
tell me about it.
I’m actually not sure if th9is hurts obama or the gop.
obama in part because he looks like a sucker.
the gop in part because obama is clearly reaching out and they keep rejeting it.
we’ll see whether this episode of “Punk’d: DC” works out for either…
Well, I don’t think the rejection of Obama’s reaching out reflects well on the GOP (except with that 25% dead-ender crowd who Still approved of BushCo), but of course, the commercial media likes to portray everything as a sign of the failed Obama presidency, so what do I know? I think if the GOP continues their mostly irrelevant grandstanding against anything administration does while there is an open attempt from Obama to try to work with them, it starts to look worse and worse for the GOP, because people in the real world have noticed that we have real problems we need to deal with rather than campaaigning for the mid-term elections on obstructionism.
I’m noticing that more and more people outside the blogosphere are calling things for what they are, rather than what the teevee news would like to paint them as. Anecdotal info, but interesting nonetheless.
“I’m noticing that more and more people outside the blogosphere are calling things for what they are”
Oh yes. and it’s fascinating.
at last night’s mayoral budget forum, they separted us into small groups to decide what should be cut, and pretty much everyone was like “this is a farce, this isn’t real democracy.” most of these people were not DFHs either: lots of firemen, 50-somethings, 70-somethings… all of them pissed off and acting like they had been fed a bullshit sandwich.
good times.
I think he wouldn’t have made a good Commerce Secretary. I agree with what I heard on the Daily Show – they 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.