WASHINGTON —
Watch original video:
Saying “I made a mistake,” Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire abruptly withdrew as commerce secretary nominee on Thursday and left the young bird White House suddenly coping through Barack Obama’session third Cabinet withdrawal. Gregg cited “irresolvable conflicts” with Obama’s policies, specifically mentioning the $790 billion housekeeping stimulus bill and 2010 census in a narration released without warning by his Senate charge.
Later, at a news conference in the Capitol, he sounded more contrite.
“The president asked me to observe it,” he said of the job offer. “I said, yes. That was my misunderstand.”
Obama offered a somewhat different enumeration from Gregg.
“It comes as something of a surprise, because the truth, you know, Mr. Gregg approached us with self-interest and seemed enthusiastic,” Obama said in an interview with the Springfield (Ill.) Journal-Register.
Later, he told reporters traveling with him on Air Force One that he was glad Gregg “searched his heart” and changed course now under the jurisdiction the Senate confirmed him to the Cabinet post. He also said Gregg’s retirement won’t deter him from laboring with Republicans and trying to modify the partisan ways of Washington.
“Clearly he was just having assistant thoughts through leaving the Senate, a place where he’s thrived,” Obama added.
The unexpected withdrawal came just three weeks into Obama’s presidency and upon the body the heels of divers other Cabinet troubles. The new president is in the midst of expending politic chief in Washington - and around the country - for his economic pack and is seeking to rouse forward by an ambitious agenda in the midst of an housekeeping recession at the same time that the country continues to face threats at the end of one’s wits.
Now Obama also finds himself needing to fill two vacancies - at Commerce and at the Health and Human Services Department. Former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle withdrew his nomination for that post amid a tax controversy. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was confirmed despite revelations that he had not paid some of his taxes on duration.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson was Obama’s rudimentary choice as commerce secretary. He withdrew in early January following revelation that a grand jury is investigating allegations of wrongdoing in the awarding of contracts in his state. Richardson has not been implicated personally.
Gregg was one of three Republicans Obama had put in his Cabinet to emphasize his campaign pledge that he would be an agent of bipartisan change.
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said Gregg told the White House early this week that he was having second thoughts and met by Obama about them during an Oval Office meeting without interruption Wednesday. Emanuel said in that place were no hard feelings and “it’s better we figured this out now than later.”
“He went into this eyes open and he realized over time it wasn’t going to be a good fit,” Emanuel added.
Gregg said he’d always been a strong financial conservative and added: “It in reality wasn’familiarily a good pick.”
In an interview with The Associated Press, Gregg said, “For 30 years, I’ve been my own person in charge of my own views, and I guess I hadn’t really focused on the job of working for somebody else and carrying their views, and so this is basically where it came out.”
Gregg, 61, said he changed his mind later realizing he wasn’t ready to “trim my sails” to have existence a part of Obama’s team.
“I just sensed that I was not going to be good at reality anything other than myself,” he before-mentioned.
The New Hampshire senator moreover said he would probably not run during a new term in 2010.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called Gregg a friend and said, “I venerate his decision.” But Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, said he wished Gregg “had thought through the implications of his nomination more thoroughly before accepting this post.”
In his statement, Gregg said his subduction had matter of no consequence to do through the vetting into his past that Cabinet officials routinely undergo. He told the AP he foresaw conflicts over health worry, global warming and taxes.
He also cited both the encouragement and the census viewed like areas of diversity through the administration.
When the Senate voted on the president’s massive stimulus plan earlier this week, Gregg did not vote. The bill passed with all Democratic votes and just three Republican votes. Asked by reporters whether the White House could have used his consecrated by a vow on the plan, Gregg uttered “I’m sure that’s true” and he said the administration had asked him to vote for it.
Conservatives in both houses have been unappeasable critics of the centerpiece of Obama’s economic recovery plan, arguing it is filled with wasteful spending and won’t create enough jobs.
The Commerce Department has jurisdiction over the Census Bureau, and the management recently took steps to assert greater control. The issue of the census has deep national implications, since congressional districts are drawn based on population.
Gregg’s announcement also undid a carefully constructed chain of events.
The New Hampshire senator had agreed to couple the Cabinet only if his departure from the Senate did not allow Democrats to lay hold of his seat.
New Hampshire’s Democratic governor, John Lynch, in turn, pledged to appointed Bonnie Newman, a Republican and a former interim president of the University of New Hampshire.
She, in turn, had agreed not to run for a full member in 2010, creating an open locate for Democrats to try to claim.
In a statement, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky reported Gregg “made a principled decision to return and we’re light-hearted to have him.”
Lynch, who spoke to Gregg several hours before the announcement, said he respected Gregg’s decision to withdraw and remain in the Senate. He thanked Newman during her willingness to serve.
A promised time after Gregg’s nomination had been announced, the AP reported that a former staffer, Kevin Koonce, was under criminal investigation with regard to the sake of allegedly taking baseball and hockey tickets from a lobbyist in interchange for legislative favors in which case working for Gregg.
The senator said at the time that he had been told he was neither a make submissive nor target of the investigation, and would cooperate full.
—
Associated Press writers Jennifer Loven and Andrew Taylor in Washington, Ben Feller in Springfield, Ill., and Holly Ramer in Concord, N.H., contributed to this report.
Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2008737750_apgreggwithdrawal.html?syndication=rss