Rep. Patrick McHenry Emboldened by Gregg's Withdrawal

Yesterday when news that Senator Judd Gregg had withdrawn his name from consideration as Commerce Secretary broke I immediately wondered which taxes he hadn't paid. It wasn't until I heard he had also claimed he wouldn't run for reelection in 2010 that I started looking for a shoe to drop. Something had to be up for the man to drop out of public life completely.

It didn't take long to figure it out. I had read earlier at TPM that Gregg's name surfaced in the Jack Abramoff scandal, but now find his name linked with the New Hampshire phone jamming scandal as well. There are shoes one and two in one fell swoop.

Why then, if this information is so publicly available, would Rep. Patrick McHenry and his fellow Republicans gloat over Gregg's defection from the Obama team? Surely, they've heard of Google. The man is linked to two major GOP scandals and McHenry has this to say:

"When your opponent trips and falls on his face, it certainly emboldens the opponent," added Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.). "This has been blunder after blunder. As an administration they are far from immune to tough days, weeks and months.

"It certainly emboldens us," McHenry said.

Rep. McHenry, I don't know if I would gloat just yet. You may find yourself embracing yet another indicted Republican.

For those who want to follow all the twists and turns of Judd Gregg's relationship with Jack Abramoff, read dengre's excellent post at DailyKos. It is well researched and nicely written.