In a column written only a few days ago on ‘Obama Politics At Its Worst’ I said we we’re waiting for a comment from Commerce Secretary nominee, Sen. Judd Gregg, (R-NH) after it was disclosed that the White House was going to take over control of the US census from the Commerce Department under the control of Obama’s Chief of Staff Raham Emanuel.  This evening we got that comment . . . Sen. Gregg withdrew his nomination.

Sen. Gregg was, I guess what you would call a bipartisan, replacement for New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat, who was forced to withdraw his nomination due to a Grand Jury investigation that he awarded some contracts to heavy political donors.

Sen. Gregg said tonight in a written statement, “It has become apparent during this process that this will not work for me as I have found that on issues such as the stimulus package and the census there are irresolvable conflicts for me.”

The census responsibility was going to be the responsibility of Richardson, but after his withdrawal and the nomination of Gregg, the White House transferred the responsibility under its wings.

Republicans have accused the Obama administration of trying to politicize the once-in-a-decade event by bringing it under control of White House senior staff members.

The census has significant political impact.  It redraws districts so that they can maximize a party’s clout while minimizing the opposition through a process of gerrymandering.

The census also determines the composition of the Electoral College, which chooses the president.

It also determines the allocation of federal funds.  In other words the party in control could disproportionately steer federal funding to areas dominated by its own members by skewing census numbers.

Republicans believe that the census should be conducted by accurately doing a head count — door to door.  Democrats advocate using mathematical estimates, known as ‘sampling’ to count urban residents and immigrants.

Gregg has long opposed ‘sampling’ by the census and has voted against funding increases for the bureau.

As for the stimulus, Gregg made it clear his distaste for the package, echoing his fellow Republicans.  Gregg didn’t vote on the package in the Senate.

According to the Associated Press and other news sources it came as a surprise and another embarrassment to the Obama White House, but press secretary Robert Gibbs tried to put a positive spin on it all.  He said it was Gregg who first “reached out to the president” and offered to be commerce secretary.  Gibbs said in a written statement that Gregg made it “very clear throughout the interviewing process” that he could “support, embrace and move forward” with President Obama’s agenda, despite “past disagreements about policies.”

But it became clear after Gregg was nominated, Gibbs said, that Gregg could not support some of Obama’s “key economic priorities.”

“I said yes.  That was my mistake,” Gregg told reporters Thursday on Capitol Hill.  He said he’d always been a strong fiscal conservative.  “It really wasn’t a good pick.”

Once the economic priorities were gone and the census went to the White House Gregg wasn’t interested in feeding fish.