Just as super-cool bailout oversight head Elizabeth Warren starts to make some noise about the lack of accountability for TARP, Judd drops out from the same oversight group, citing a need to focus on the upcoming stimulus package. He plans on being the Last Honest Man to stand in the way of San Francisco Pelosi giving away your tax dollars to dirty hippie groups:
"I don't want it to end up being walk-around money for liberal constituency groups," Gregg said. "I want to make sure it's used effectively. But it's going to involve things like mortgage relief. It's going to involve infrastructure. It may involve the automobile industry and it may involve tax cuts, hopefully."
Now, Gregg pretty much openly mocked the previous stimulus bill. So why the sudden interest in this one, so great that he's dropped the ball on the bailout oversight? Especially since he has quickly become known as a leading proponent of the bailout bill?
Sounds like The Juddy Collins Show might turn into a two-year long gig. Maybe he is running again after all. Curiouser and curiouser.
I've long felt that unseating Powerball Gregg would be a tougher, more complex project than Bass or Bradley or Sununu, and so far he has not disabused me of that expectation.
Adding: I'm not trying to be purposely cryptic, so let me tease out some more of what might be going on here below the surface. If I've learned one thing since following politics, it's to take nothing at face value at first:
* Gregg is champion of bailout bill, and a True Believer in it. Many mentions in the press.
* Bailout bill is massively unpopular among voters.
* '08 election cycle comes and goes.
* Daily reports of lack of bailout accountability.
* Oversight panel led by person willing to criticize the Administration, report due out on the 10th.
* New stimulus package on the way in January that, unlike the other one, will be massive, multi-dimensional and a real sustainable benefit to ordinary people.
* Gregg's up for re-election in 2010.
It makes perfect political sense why he would want to be more distant from the toxicity of the bailout and closer to some reflected glory of the upcoming stimulus, a concept he once scorned. At a minimum, this tells me he's keeping the door open to running again. Other ideas:
* Face value: he really is on too many subcommittees and can't spare the workload.
* Personality conflict with the oversight panel. Could you really imagine Gregg in a group headed by someone who blogs on TPM?
|
Blue Hampshire RSS