(H/T – Ed Morrissey)
Remember that item from Friday that had President Barack Obama (D) taking Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) as his Commerce Secretary so that the Democrats would get to 59-of-99 seats in the Senate? The Hill is quoting named and unnamed Republicans close to Gregg that he wouldn’t do it if the Democratic governor of New Hampshire, John Lynch, appointed a Democrat to replace him.
Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) won’t accept a position as President Obama’s secretary of Commerce unless he is guaranteed his Senate seat remains in GOP hands, said two Republicans who know Gregg well….
"Gregg would never allow his seat to go to a Democrat, the only way he would allow it is if he died," said a Republican close to Gregg. "He would consider it to be a breach of trust to people who elected it."
For those of you wondering why I call it the Tommy Thompson Memorial Pickoff Pool, former Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson (R) made a sport of cherry-picking a Democratic state Senator for a plum state job and replacing that person with a Republican when the Democratically-controlled Senate would block the budget process. Of course, the Senate Republican “Leader” at the time, Mike Ellis (Neenah) would always find a way to have his caucus lose a seat in the next election to return control right back to the Dems.
The funny thing is, the Dems don’t even need to get to 60; there will always be enough RINOs (with or without Gregg and the still-“fighting” Norm Coleman from Minnesota) siding with them to stop any filibuster from the remainder of the caucus.
