A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days

I remember that when John Bolton was nominated to be the Ambassador to the United Nations, Democrats complained that we could not send a nominee to Turtle Bay who had so openly and so frequently expressed opposition to the role that the UN plays and criticism for a whole host of UN actions.

If the "you can't do a job you disdained in the past" rule still applies, does that mean Judd Gregg's nomination to be Commerce Secretary will be voted down?

President Obama's new candidate to run the Commerce Department voted in favor of abolishing the agency as a member of the Budget Committee and on the Senate floor in 1995.

Sen. Judd Gregg , R-N.H., whose nomination was expected to be announced Tuesday, also worked in the Senate to trim the department's budget as head of the Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations Subcommittee.

Gregg's 1995 votes were cast for the fiscal 1996 budget resolution, a nonbinding blueprint that outlined the GOP's fiscal priorities after Republicans won full control of Congress for the first time in 40 years.

The Senate version of the controversial measure envisioned spending cuts of more than $960 billion, almost half of it from Medicare and Medicaid. Democratic efforts to amend it were uniformly rebuked by a united GOP majority on the Budget Committee.

Have the vetters in the Obama Administration decided to take a 6-month vacation, mayhap?