Should Rahm Emanuel Be Running the Census?
When Obama’s pick for Commerce Secretary, Judd Gregg, the true-red conservative Republican Senator from New Hampshire, has his confirmation hearing—date not yet set– he is going to be grilled over a news story that hasn’t gotten much play in these “all-stimulus-bill-all-the-time” days.
Last Friday in her Washington Post blog, Mary Ann Akers (a.k.a. “The Sleuth”) wrote that Obama and his people were planning to transfer the U.S. Census—a big deal now as 2010 approaches—from the Commerce Department, where it has long resided, to the White House. That’s important because the census results will determine the redrawing of Congressional districts and so electoral college numbers, and could impact the 2012 elections when Obama could be fighting for reelection and Democrats fighting to hold on to the House and the Senate.
As usual, the reality is a bit more complicated: The brigades of Census Bureau managers will not be moving into the West Wing or any wing of the White House; instead the Director of the Census Bureau will report not to the Commerce Secretary, but directly to a designee—feared by Republicans to be Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel– in Obama’s White House.
That change in the Census Bureau’s line of command was announced after Obama nominated Judd Gregg.
According to the website CQ Politics, the plan was sparked by complaints from African American and Hispanic leaders who were concerned about the fact that Senator Gregg had not only tried to abolish the Commerce Department, but he had also tried to reduce funding for the 2000 Census. Even worse, Judd is reportedly an advocate for physical door-to-door canvassing to determine population, as opposed to “sampling,” favored by those who make a strong case that that minority populations have long been undercounted.
Gregg, who is close to George W. Bush, was a surprising choice to head Commerce for another reason: the post is often bestowed on someone whom the President owes big time– because that person raised big bucks during the campaign or is a personal friend, or both. Obama’s first choice for Commerce, New Mexico Democratic Governor Bill Richardson, removed himself before his confirmation hearing because of an ongoing federal investigation involving pay to play. Richardson was a more conventional choice on many levels—to name just one, he fit the mold of being a person whom the President owed. Richardson, a Hispanic, had endorsed Obama when Richardson might have been expected to endorse Hillary, given that her husband had appointed Richardson to two cabinet posts. “Isn’t two cabinet posts enough?” an apoplectic Bill Clinton said. about Richardson. (The former friends have not yet mended fences.)
Gregg will surely be questioned by Republicans about his position on giving up or even sharing jurisdiction over the U.S. Census Bureau, one of the key components of the sprawling Commerce Department, which also encompasses the National Weather Service, the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, the Patent and Trademark office, and more. More specifically, Gregg will be asked if he thinks that the transfer or “hijacking,” as some Republicans are calling it, would have occurred if Bill Richardson were Commerce Secretary.
One senior Republican Senate aide told the Washington Post’s Akers—not for attribution for fear of retribution—that letting the census “be run out of Rahm’s office is like putting PETA in charge of issuing hunting permits.” Akers also quoted House Minority Leader John Boehner as insisting, “The United States Census should remain independent of politics; it should not be directed by political operatives working out of the White House.”
The hand of the Emanuel who, as a Congressman ran the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, widely credited with choreographing the huge Democratic gains in the 2006 midterms, was seen by some as the brains behind Obama’s choice of Gregg. Yes, Obama had promised bipartisanship and, if confirmed, Gregg will be the third Republican in Obama’s cabinet, but Gregg is a full-fledged conservative.
The strategy, whomever devised it, was said to bank on Gregg being a willing recruit to a Democratic administration because he recognized that in the increasing blue New Hampshire his chances of being reelected in 2010 were not so good. Also, the state’s Governor, John Lynch, is a Democrat, so he’d be expected to appoint a Democratic replacement, and Obama would be much closer to the 60 votes he needs for a filibuster-proof Senate.
There was a hitch in the plan when Gregg said that he’d take the job at Commerce only if Governor Lynch promised to appoint a Republican replacement. Lynch appointed Republican Bonnie Newman, a self-proclaimed seat warmer.
The chances of a Democrat winning the seat in 2010 remain pretty good. And, given the Republicans numbers in the Senate, no matter whether the Census stays at commerce or moves to the White House, Gregg will likely be confirmed as Commerce Secretary. And Bonnie Newman, his former chief of staff during his days in the House, can be expected to vote for him.
**
Carol Felsenthal is a regular columnist for the Chicago Daily Observer.
This is the start of a putsch!
The courts have ruled that the US Constitution requires an actual enumeration of the population, not “a sampling” for conducting the decennial census. The folks at ACORN would love to gerrymander the USA for their own purposes — despite criminal investigations into ACORN activities which have promoted vote fraud, Obama has chosen to award this so called “non-partisan” group more federal tax dollars in the Economic Stimulus package.
Now, here’s an example of chutzpah: The Republicans didn’t get their act together enough to challenge Obama for not being constitutionally qualified to be President as an Article 2 “natural born citizen” so Obama’s White House steals the census from the Commerce Department against the specific instructions of the constitution itself — “actual enumeration” under Article 1.
Carol Felsenthal really hits the nail on the head. Any of us who are from Illinois, Republican or Democrat, know what Rahm Emanuel is like. He would never let the facts or the truth interfere with anything he was doing. Allowing him to oversee the census is like putting Casanova in charge of the harem!
Thank you, Carol, for directing attention precisely where the magician wishes it not to go. No one does this better.
There must be no underestimation of David and Rahm’s political agenda: Card check strengthens their union friends. “Fairness” doctrine weakens critics. The spending bill endows Acorn. Census bureau estimation rather than enumeration strengthens urban constituencies and the flow of federal funds thereto.
For the next 13 nanoseconds the national debate between frightfully brilliant beltway observers over whether Barack will lead from the center-left, left, hard left or extreme left of the political spectrum may continue. But it is not the totality of the administration’s plan or point. That is only policy.
David and Rahm know what it takes to win elections. Basically — it is what they do. Embedding political advantages via government is their candy shop reaction to the levers they see upon going to work every morning. With no equivalent to a Bush-hating media as a check, and Congressional oversight imbalanced by desires for bigger and better condom-distribution or pothole-filling, I anticipate they will shortly achieve sugar buzz that will last for years.
Since you are one of the few who would get this point, please allow me also to note the wholesale importation to Washington of Mayor Daley-style suzerainty over business.
Rahm, whose consolation prize for not be chosen to manage a Daley mayoral re-election march was assignment to fundraising, has learned ever since, including during his investment banking career (more frightful brilliance!), that business is best that worships publicly and begs in private. David and Barack get that joke down deep — it is quite something to behold here, and one of the more challenging explanations to make to sensate visitors who come from places where businessmen can take or leave local elected officials.
Not so here. And in ways, to be sure, we benefit, in our region’s cultural life and offerings. But the contra-positive, business would care about us even if the City didn’t force them to, is hard to test, so no one rocks the boat.
This all started in the cro-magnon era when things called “factories” employed “workers” who also lived in “precincts” and voted for “mayors.” Our Richard I knew with amazing specificity the assessments, permits, inspectors, waivers, winks, nods and other petty indulgences afforded each such “factory.”
In those days such knowledge gave Mayoral lunches with presidents of factory-owning companies, within the Chicago Club’s immense walnut panels helpful… clarity, shall we say.
Such practices passed from father to son, so now Richard II summons corporatistas to an Olympics fundraising meeting and — my goodness, look! — they appear.
Well, folks, such practices have in fact passed to Richard II’s fundraiser/Congressman-in-chief and strategist-in-chief and the Harvard guy from the fifth ward with ants in his pants to be “important.”
And so — Jeff Immelt appears, scrubbed to a shine that belies the three-quarter drop in value of the share price for which he bears personal responsibility, smiling away because he is in the in-crowd.
Richard Carpenter nailed it. We’ve only just begun.
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