no so fast, commerce

The Potomac two-step has never seen such left-footed days.

Somewhat overshadowed by the dinny crescendo surrounding the “stimulus” plan’s passage and Nancy Pelosi’s Roman holiday is Senator Judd Gregg’s withdrawal from consideration as commerce secretary. More interesting for future political battle purposes is one of the reasons why he decided to abandon the nomination. Chief among them is the way that Obama intends to unconstitutionally conduct the 2010 census, pulling its operations from Commerce and putting its administration under the dark wing of hyper-partisan Rahm Emanuel.

Burnt rubber, dumpster fires and chicken coops. One can just smell the change in the air.

Democrats have long postured for a sampling model, using statistical estimates to determine the size and location of the country’s population, starkly deviating from the traditional head count process. The reason given is that head counting under counts urban minorities.

tissue, please

Apparently, respectably dressed people with clipboards and census badges are somehow intimidating to your average minority, so according to Democrats, they are prone to hiding instead of just fessing up for the count.

Then again, I was accused of voter intimidation by some white-guilt college student for wearing a suit and a poll watcher badge while standing on the side of an eight foot wide sidewalk near a church in Bordeaux in 2004. It doesn’t take much, apparently. Maybe it was the shades, or that I appeared to be eying the free food. No clipboard, though.

With all due respect, this sounds more like a “you” problem than a “me” problem, no matter one’s melanin composition. Hiding and not being counted because you fear deportation as an illegal resident or have an outstanding warrant for your arrest is hardly the stuff that ought engender legitimate concern. Neither non-citizens nor felons can vote – er, well these are Democratic districts… (reframe). Neither non-citizens nor felons should vote. Save a tear, save a tree.

that pesky old document again, dammit

The Constitution requires that

Representation and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers … . The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.

– Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution of the United States

In 1999, the Supreme Court of the United States clarified how the census ought to be conducted based on then-existing federal law. In that opinion, the four conservative justices (not including the now-retired Sandra Day-O’Connor), went further and determined that the Constitution’s language forbade the practice of sampling and that the language “actual enumeration” meant what it says – a head-count.  Since O’Connor has been replaced by Samuel Alito, and William Rehnquist by John Roberts, the greenest of Supreme Court observers could rightly conclude that the 5 votes exist to establish a binding precedent that an actual enumeration means just that.

let it be

Gregg, then, is Barack Obama’s fourth cabinet nominee to bite the dust, albeit this time on voluntary, principled grounds as opposed to tax cheat ones.  If Obama is savvy (and thus far, that certainly is well within the realm of doubt) he won’t fight the battle this time unless the composition of the Supreme Court drastically changes between now and next year.  I actually hope he does.