We Never Even Had Time to Miss Him

Republican Senator Judd Gregg withdrew from his nomination to become President Obama's Commerce Secretary yesterday and will remain a Senator until the end of his term, at which point he says he will likely retire. A lot of Republicans seem to be reacting with glee that Gregg removed his name. I'm not entirely sure I understand why, but I do understand a couple of important things this teaches us about Obama's cabinet.

First, the President is still the boss. I think a lot of Democrats exaggerated any differences in policy that would occur if Gregg became Commerce Secretary. Similarly, I think a lot of Republicans exaggerate the influence of some of Obama's other nominees, especially Secretary of State Clinton. Mrs. Clinton is not going to run the State Department her way, she's going to run it President Obama's way. This works much like any other company: the President is still the boss, and cabinet secretaries are like high-level employees, and when push come to shove, employees still take their marching orders from the boss. Sen. Gregg didn't like the President's marching orders, so he bailed out of the job. That's his prerogative, but it's also a reminder of who sets the policy, and it's not the Republican.

So if the President still calls the shots, why do these appointments even matter? Why not lavish them on your unqualified friends as political patronage like President Bush did? They matter because they determine the quality of counsel the President gets, and that is very important. I think President Obama is extremely smart, but nobody is so smart that they know everything about everything in the federal government. Cabinet secretaries are crucially important because they provide counsel to the President in their areas of expertise. The President is free to ignore their advice, as Bush was wont to do, but a good President listens to the advice of his best people. If a secretary can't add any value to the analysis, then policy is only as smart as the guy in the Oval Office. And even in the best of circumstances, that can get dicey at times.

On the whole, I think President Obama has picked some excellent secretaries. Particularly, he's taken positions that both parties have used as dumping grounds for party hacks, and brought in respected experts in those fields. Nobel Prize-winning physicist Stephen Chu is now Energy Secretary. We've never once had a scientist heading the Energy Department, which may partly explain why we've never had a coherent energy policy. Chu can offer the President a highly valuable perspective. Similarly, Education Secretary Arne Duncan was CEO of Chicago's public schools, and Tom Daschle's withdrawal as Health Secretary designate offers the chance to name a medical doctor to that post--something else we've never had. (Paging Dr. Dean...)

As for Gregg, he's spent his career clinging to conservative economic theories that have had great trouble matching with economic reality. As such, I don't know what he could have added to policy formation, and so I don't think he would have been a particularly good Commerce Secretary. The one thing he would have added was more evidence of Obama's post-partisanship. But while Obama may be post-partisan, the rest of the world, and particularly the Republican Party, is decidedly not. I think the refusal of Gregg and others to put aside partisan differences and work together should be a clear lesson that will result in a Democrat getting appointed as Commerce Secretary.

And the best part for me is that Gregg is still retiring from the Senate, and in two years' time his seat will likely be held by Democrat Paul Hodes. And, to follow up my earlier post about the death of Republicans in the Northeast, the other news yesterday was that Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) will get a challenge in 2o10 ... from ultra-conservative Republicans in the state who feel that Specter, the rare Republican representing a state Obama carried by ten points, isn't conservative enough. For such heresy, they are determined to torpedo the one Republican who could actually (maybe) win that state.

I double-checked, but it was not my birthday.

But it was Abraham Lincoln's (and Charles Darwin's) 200th birthday, which I guess is occasion enough. President Obama spoke at Lincoln's old home yesterday, and was buoyant enough to joke about the Commerce flap. He described the young Lincoln, "possibly in his law office, his feet on a cluttered desk, his sons playing around him, his clothes a bit too small to fit his uncommon frame, maybe wondering if somebody might call him up and ask him to be Commerce Secretary."

At least he hasn't lost his sense of humor about it.