Gregg won't vote on stimulus, or anything else
By Michael Kranish, Globe Staff
WASHINGTON -- Senator Judd Gregg, the New Hampshire Republican nominated to be Commerce Secretary, once was seen as a key ally in President Obama's effort to win bipartisan support for his economic stimulus bill.
But Gregg's spokeswoman said today that the senator would recuse himself from voting on the bill, and would not even participate in debate on it.
In fact, the spokeswoman said, Gregg will not vote on any bill or other matter, in committee or on the floor.
In recusing himself, Gregg deprived Obama of a potential key vote in support of the package, as well the influence Gregg might have had in persuading other Republicans to follow his lead.
Gregg's spokeswoman, Laena Fallon, would not speak about the senator's decision other than to say, "He thinks this is the most appropriate thing to do right now."
A White House spokesman declined comment, instead referring to the statement from Gregg's office.
When Obama introduced the senator as his Commerce nominee on Tuesday, the president did so by underscoring the importance of passing the stimulus plan in a bipartisan fashion. Gregg then left the impression that he supported Obama's policy, although he did not explicitly endorse the Democratic stimulus proposal before the Senate.
"You've outlined an extraordinarily bold and aggressive, effective and comprehensive plan for how we can get this country moving," Gregg said to Obama at the nomination ceremony. "This is not a time for partisanship. This is not a time when we should stand in our ideological corners and shout at each other. This is a time to govern and govern well."
But now, Gregg's decision to recuse himself from voting is bound to raise questions about why he is remaining in office if he won't perform such an essential duty of a senator -- voting on legislation. It also may raise questions about whether he is seeking to avoid putting himself in the embarrassing position of voting against Obama's top economic priority.
Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond's School of Law, said today that he understood that Gregg wanted to avoid casting votes while his nomination is pending to avoid any appearance of impropriety, but he said it was not necessary. He said that a member of Congress usually recuses himself from voting on a matter when there is a personal or financial conflict with legislation.
"It seems that he could continue to discharge his duties as senator by participating in the debate on the stimulus and voting," Tobias said.
Every senator knows that Gregg has been picked by Obama for the Commerce job, and "they can always discount what he says accordingly."
In an interview last week, shortly before word leaked out that he was to be the Commerce nominee, Gregg said that he hoped to play a key role in helping Obama win passage of the bill. While Gregg said he could not support the bill as it was written by the House, he saw room for compromise if spending was cut and funds were provided to forestall home foreclosures.
"I've talked to the White House, given them some ideas," Gregg said last week. "I think it is good for the nation if we can do a bipartisan, substantive" piece of legislation.
Gregg's work as a deal broker, however, apparently ended as soon as it became clear Obama would make him the Commerce pick.
Gregg has said he won't resign until he is confirmed for the Commerce post. If he were to resign now, Democrats would need only 59 votes to overcome potential Republican procedural hurdles instead of the current 60. There are currently 99 senators, with a Minnesota seat still vacant and being contested in the courts. Under Senate rules, 60 votes are needed to overcome a filibuster when 99 or 100 senators are in office, but only 59 votes would be needed to overcome a filibuster if there are 98 senators, a Senate official said.
New Hampshire's Democratic governor, John Lynch, plans to appoint a Republican, Bonnie Newman, to replace Gregg.
With 56 Democrats and two Independents who caucus with the party, party leaders were searching today for several votes to get to 60 and ensure passage of the bill.
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Gee how can I hide my true vote? This is shameful but coming form the man who's first words after nomination acceptance were "this is no time for partisanship". Except, he would not acept the nomination unless there was an agreement that his seat would remain Republican! The very definition of Partisanship!
So why is Obama appointing this Judd Dude anyway? And why does he fall on his sword to make sure another Republican gets into the Senate when the State has a Democratic Governor??? Would any Republican even talk with Democrats if they didn't have to? Doesn't Obama know that these nut job Republicans will try to destory him every inch of the way?
I don't get it.
My advice to Obama, give up on Republicans. They do not care about this country, they only care about the Republican Party. We allready had 8 years of their failure.
Senator Gregg should do the right thing and vote NO. All the senators should do the right thing and vote NO. It's a waste of taxpayer (you and me) money. It won't stimulate the economy. It will saddle us and our children with enormous debt (in addition to the interest and sure-to-follow hyper-inflation). It will fund a bunch of non-valued added initiatives. It's not a partisan issue. It's a taxpayer issue.
Judd Gregg: Emasculated man.
It takes more than one party to close any deal. The Obama Administration had to agree in advance to guarantee the continuation of Republican incumbency in Gregg's NH Senate seat, for Gregg to recuse himself from voting on this critical piece of legislation, and for Gregg to continue his own incumbency until confirmation thus sustaining the filibuster threshold of 60 senators. What magic does Gregg possess to drive such a hard bargain with the landslide winner of the US presidency? This is like trading the prized family jewel for a Yugo. Who won this election, anyway? A team of rivals is one thing; a fifth column is quite something else.
I don't think he's a good choice for commerce secretary. If he won't be sufficiently loyal to Obama's objectives, then there's no trusting him as commerce secretary.
Obama's brand of bipartisanship lasted 2 weeks. Now it looks like he is going to roll over the opposition. By that measure, Bush was actually a lot more bipartisan in the first year in office, especially after 9-11-2001. I'm no Bush fan, nor am I an Obama fanboy, but I'm just sick of the media bias towards this whack job of a president. At least the press got it right about Bush. Now we have a president that wants to borrow our way out of a debt crisis, blow billions of dollars making the economy even less efficient and therefore creating long term systemic problems and reducing the standard of living. And the press is making this guy sound sane and practical. Obama doesn't have a clue and his own pick Commerce Secretary knows it.
Judd Greg is turning out to be a real stinker. Time to smarten up and pull the plug on this nomination.
He wouldn't want to upset his both with common sense - voting against this travesty.
For the last 8 years EVERY Republican US Senator and US Representative did exactly what Dick Cheney and George Bush told them to do. In those 8 years the Republicans nearly destroyed the US. The Republicans are fascists. That means they are for a Big Business and Government coalition designed to do grave harm to normal people who work for a wage or salary.
Of course. 8 years of that have nearly destroyed our country., and those responsible are the fascist neo-con Republicans.
Bill Richardson should have this post - not some REPUBLICAN who is only going to mess everything up. This is a very important position and it should not be in the hands of this clown. Obama needs to wake up - the republicans are not going to play fair - it's obvious so he needs to stop trying to be so nice to them. What a farce to have this guy as Commerce of Secretary - I hope Obama pulls him out now.
The really shameful one here is Lynch, who is a traitor to his party and to the country by helping allow Republicans to scuttle our chances of avoiding economic collapse. I call on the Democratic voters in NH to begin impeachment proceedings the instant he makes good on his plan to appoint a Republican to replace Gregg.
What a wimp...
"At least the press got it right about Bush." When, exactly, was that? During the last 5 months or so of his Presidency? "Whack job?" I don't think so. It's nice to have grownups in the White House. Now if we can just get some of them into the Congress...that would be change we can believe in!
The stimulus is going to bankrupt the country and throw us into chaos if it happens. It is no different from a crack addict who buys furniture and appliances on credit using his infant son's name and SSN, then sells it all to buy crack.
We can't steal from our kids like this. It's time to suck it up and weather this downturn. It's our problem to face, not something to hand off to future generations.
Gregg take the principled stand and vote no instead of abstaining.
I'm concerned that Gregg will use his cabinet post to undermine the administration. He clearly seems to be putting party over country here.
Maybe Gregg was the only guy left for the job who actually paid his taxes.
To GeorgeNJ- check out the definition of fascism. Read the line items on this "stimulus" package. If it passes as originally written, the liberals will be taking us a step closer to a socialist society. This "stimulus" is only providing the Democrats with an opportunity to squeeze in every liberal agenda item they can so the taxpayers can foot the bill. Better pass it before the sky falls in! Why do you want the government doing MORE?? And when did being pro business and having an opposing opinion become fascist? Gregg and anyone who understands economics knows this plan is a disaster. Wake up America!
There are now very few (if any) members of the House & Senate that are different from the last two to four years. The President is new, but he was in the Senate when this mess began. To point fingers at Dems or Repubs is stupid. What makes anyone think that the same bumbling fools will correct the major problem that they created?
This is not a Democrat or Republican issue at all. This is a problem that the people of the US are going to pay for. The bumbling fools will come out of this mess without any sacrafices at all - they have money, don't pay taxes (OK, we know of a few who don't, but where there is smoke, there is fire). We need to vote out imcumbants all together and make a major overhaul to our government. Only then will there be change (and I'm not so sure of that either).