Gregg's withdrawal leaves Washington and N.H. reeling

Evan Vucci/Associated PressSenator Judd Gregg will have a hard time fading into the background after pulling out as commerce secretary nominee. (Evan Vucci/Associated Press)

CONCORD, N.H. - In the circus of New Hampshire politics, Judd Gregg has always been the political equivalent of a Congregational church steeple: straight, angular, sober, constant.

A reliable conservative, he typically hews to the Republican Party line. His favorite subjects are Social Security and taxes. In Washington and in his home state, he is most often photographed standing alongside someone more famous or newsworthy - President George W. Bush, a visiting VIP - most often in a tasteful, unflashy suit or, on the weekends, a plain barn jacket. When he last ran for reelection, his aides made up T-shirts that said, "Judd Rocks (quietly)."

This was the man who brought the political world to a halt late Thursday afternoon, announcing a radical change of heart about joining Presi dent Obama's Cabinet as commerce secretary just days after he said he would.

Flushed and weaving before the news cameras, he looked as if he'd shocked himself as much as anyone as he explained, citing "irresolvable conflicts" and deep philosophical differences with the administration, that it had gradually dawned on him that the job "wasn't my personality, after 30 years of being myself."

"I think he probably sat up in bed and said, 'Oh, my God, what have I done now?' " said Joe McQuaid, publisher of the New Hampshire Union Leader, the paper whose conservative editorial page has long backed Gregg.

Now Gregg will have a harder time fading into the background.

To many people in Washington, he has become a potent symbol of the triumph of traditional party differences over Obama's fervent pursuit of bipartisanship. And in New Hampshire, where he ruffled feathers in both parties with his surprise decision to join Obama's Cabinet, some voters who liked the idea of Obama and Gregg working together are disappointed that the pairing won't get the green light after all.

"I think the black eye goes to Gregg," said Dave Spenard, a 47-year-old lawyer from Manchester, over lunch at a downtown pub yesterday. He had thought Gregg was a great appointment. "He should have known the agenda going in."

Others are just flummoxed.

"This is my question: what did he learn that finally made him say, 'I can't drink this Kool-Aid?' " said Jim Bird, a middle-aged engineer sitting a few seats down the bar. "What did Judd Gregg learn, and when did he learn it?"

Republicans blame the Obama administration, saying the White House tried to play politics with the census, a key Commerce Department responsibility, and misled Gregg into thinking he would have more influence over policy than he would.

"My opinion is the president's staff had decided that Judd Gregg was going to be nothing more than the token Republican in the Cabinet," said Bob Clegg, former state senator. "That's not Judd Gregg."

The implications of Gregg's withdrawal ripple out far beyond the Senate. New Hampshire's Democratic governor, John Lynch, who is widely expected to run for a fourth two-year term, irritated members of his own party by naming a Republican to replace Gregg - Gregg said he wouldn't have taken the commerce job if Lynch had insisted on a Democrat. Now Lynch has had "the rug pulled out from under him," said McQuaid.

Bonnie Newman, the Republican whom Lynch had named to replace Gregg, has presumably spent the last several weeks preparing to upend her life and move to Washington. She issued a brief statement, but has stayed out of the public eye.

New Hampshire has always had a soft spot for politicians with an independent streak, giving a wide berth to even the marginally eccentric. Meldrim Thomson, a former governor, spoke of arming the New Hampshire National Guard with nuclear weapons. Bob Smith, a former senator, resigned from the Republican Party to run a quixotic and lonely campaign for president. Craig Benson, former governor and a half-billionaire, lugged a three-legged desk into the corner office to underscore the importance of thrift.

But Judd Gregg has always stood apart from that crowd. The son of the late Governor Hugh Gregg, a beloved and gregarious Yankee, he graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy, Columbia University, and Boston University Law School. Since 1978, he has climbed from executive councilor to U.S. representative, governor, and three-term senator.

He has chaired some of the Senate's most prestigious committees, and he served as Bush's sparring partner in debate practice during his campaigns for president. Last fall, he was the lead negotiator on the $700 billion troubled assets relief program and played a key role in getting it passed. He reliably brings home millions of dollars for the state university system, and played a key role in securing funding for the largest conservation deal in state history.

Dante Scala, a political scientist at the University of New Hampshire, describes Gregg as a behind-the-scenes player, not a leader, but "somebody who has the ear of the leadership."

"In some ways, he is a senator from an earlier era, where the Senate was more of a gentlemen's club than it is now, a place where as gentlemen, you made deals and brokered in the back rooms," Scala said.

Gregg has never lost an election. The best candidate the Democrats could find to run against him in 2004 was the then-94-year-old Doris "Granny D." Haddock, who had famously walked across the country for campaign finance reform a few years earlier. But Gregg is more respected than loved in the Granite State, possibly because his taciturn demeanor can overshadow his dry wit, and he does not wear his emotions on his sleeve.

This week, however, Granite Staters saw a very different Gregg on display. He struggled as he tried to explain what had happened. In that moment, some say, Gregg seemed more real than he ever had before. By the end, he seemed lighter, more himself, as if a burden had been lifted.

"He's always had this veneer, this reserve about him, and it was like that had kind of been opened, and he was showing this soft, cushy Judd," said state Representative Fran Wendelboe. "It was bizarre. It was so out of character for him, I think it shows how tremendously he was impacted when he realized he'd made a mistake."

The events of the last few weeks may have helped the 61-year-old Gregg see the way to the end of his career. He said on Tuesday he would "probably not" run for reelection in 2010. Until recently, he was seen as a good bet for a fourth term, even though the state has seen significant demographic shifts that have put Democrats in virtually every top state office but Gregg's. At this point, few here expect him to run again.

McQuaid says it's healthy for the state Republican Party to have an open seat, an opportunity for regeneration.

McQuaid said he did not think the Union Leader would have supported Gregg for a fourth term.