All Gregg, All The Time Part 1

A smattering of stuff from the blogosphere on the Secretary of Commerce Designate Judd Gregg removing his name from consideration citing a "a bridge too far" on certain hotbutton issues.

Halperin, doing his best Matt Drudge impersonation comments on Gibb's comment:

In an unusual statement, spokesman Gibbs puts the blame on the New Hampshire Republican:

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs:

Senator Gregg reached out to the President and offered his name for Secretary of Commerce. He was very clear throughout the interviewing process that despite past disagreements about policies, he would support, embrace, and move forward with the President's agenda. Once it became clear after his nomination that Senator Gregg was not going to be supporting some of President Obama's key economic priorities, it became necessary for Senator Gregg and the Obama administration to part ways. We regret that he has had a change of heart

David Kurtz at TPM cites a hill staffer's quote on how the announcement seemed perfectly timed to take away from the president's event in Peoria to discuss the stimulus.

It's hard not to think that Gregg's withdrawal, with the grumbling about the census and the stimulus, was not timed to cause the most damage possible to the Obama administration. Releasing the statement just as Obama took the stage in Peoria was clearly designed to undermine the President's event. The fact he scheduled a presser only seems to confirm it. The classy exit would have been to wait til tomorrow afternoon to quietly bow out. Basically Gregg decided not just to politely decline, but rather to blow shit up and burn the bridge behind him. Do not think this portends good things for the wider political climate.

Two of my favorites, Marc Ambinder and Andrew Sullivan hit the round table to discuss "Gregg and the GOP's War on Obama"

and Larry Kudlow from the National Review Online thinks the move was brilliant

Three hats off to Judd Gregg for withdrawing his nomination for commerce secretary. And I mean three hats. I’ve never seen anything like this.

I say this not in a partisan-political sense, but in terms of Sen. Gregg’s extraordinary character and integrity. He would not compromise his beliefs.