More on Gregg

By Michael J.W. Stickings

(Following up on Creature's post from earlier this evening...)

Sen. Judd Gregg's explanation for backing away from the Commerce job for which Obama had nominated him was suitably self-absorbed: "I couldn't be Judd Gregg."

But how did he now know that when he accepted the nomination? What has changed? Sure, there's the stimulus bill, but it's not like that wasn't on his radar. He knew, more or less, what was coming, what the package would contain, and perhaps even what the partisan divide would be.

And -- let's be clear about this -- he reached out to Obama. He wanted the job.

And so I think Andrew Sullivan's explanation is probably about right:

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.

Gregg may have reached out in good faith, acting the good bipartisan in a time of crisis, hoping to bridge the gap between Obama and the GOP, but he belongs to a party that is acting in bad faith, that is trying to score political points off the economic crisis, that is united in ideological fervour, and that is as partisan as ever.

In the end, with Republicans enforcing orthodoxy, that was likely just too much for Gregg, who now skulks back home with his tail between his legs, no doubt hoping to avoid ostracism by stressing his Republican bona fides -- there were just too many "irresolvable conflicts," he now claims -- taking shots at the man he hoped would be his boss, and, perhaps most pathetically of all, suggesting that it was all just a big "mistake."