Sen. Judd Gregg (R): Reconciliation is "majority rules"

"Reconciliation is a rule of the Senate (that) has been used before for purposes exactly like this on numerous occasions... Is there something wrong with majority rules? I don't think so."

"We are using the rules of the Senate as they are set up to be used, and that happens to be the rule of the Senate."

"If you’ve got 51 votes for your position, you win!"

So sayeth Republican Senator Judd Gregg in strong support of using reconciliation, at least when it came to opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Apparenlty, reconciliation is cool with Republicans as long as it's used to: a) give huge tax cuts to rich people who don't need them; or b) trash the environment. But it's not ok with Republicans to use reconciliation in order to expand health care coverage for tens of millions of Americans, even after legislation doing just that has already passed the Senate with 60 votes, and even after they lost the election in 2008, and even after our country was founded on the concept of "majority rules" (with protections for minorities, of course). But why be consistent when you can be an obstructionist?

h/t: The Seminal

Judd Gregg Will Not Be Commerce Secretary After All. Good.

I never understood why the Obama administration would have picked a conservative Republican who disagrees with them on everything for Commerce Secretary. In the end, it turns out that Judd Gregg didn't understand it either:

"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," Gregg said in a statement to be released by his office. "Prior to accepting this post, we had discussed these and other potential differences, but unfortunately we did not adequately focus on these concerns."

OK, now that we got that one out of the way, can we please get a Democrat, preferably a Progressive, as Commerce Secretary? Thank you.