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Opinion: Will a Judd Gregg move lead to 60 Democratic votes in Senate?

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(UPDATE: The Associated Press reports the Green nom ination to Commerce is coming soon.)

It was one of the great parlor games of the 2008 election -- could Democrats reach that elusive, filibuster-proof majority of 60 in the 100-seat Senate?

Now that it looks like Al Franken has won in Minnesota, and Senate Democrats have, after an initial reluctance, seated Roland Burris, former Gov. Rod Blagojevich pick to be the senator from Illinois, the Democrats’ majority stands at a titillating 59.

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So politicos got pretty excited when word spread that President Obama, in a slick political ploy that has all the trademarks of his White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, was considering New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg -- a moderate Republican and 16-year veteran of the Senate who once served as chairman of the Budget Committee -- as his new Commerce secretary. (That’s the post that New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson had to decline because of an ongoing ethics investigation.)

But over the weekend, Gregg reassured GOP colleagues that even if he takes the job, his replacement -- to be appointed by Democratic Gov. John Lynch -- will not tilt the balance of power in the Senate.

‘Sen. Gregg has told me that if he were to take this appointment, it would not alter the makeup of the Senate in terms of the majority and the minority,’ Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said on CBS’ ‘Face the Nation’ Sunday.

Now word is that Lynch has agreed to appoint a caretaker senator -- such as Bonnie Newman, Gregg’s former chief of staff who headed up Republicans for Lynch. In a state that has been titling from red to blue for several election cycles, Lynch himself apparently plans to run for the seat in 2010, so perhaps Democrats figure they can claim that uber majority then.

Still, the more interesting question to us is why a Democratic president would pick as Commerce secretary a politician who has qualms about the administration’s own $819-billion stimulus plan.

Gregg, who would be the third Republican in Obama’s Cabinet behind Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, has been outspoken on his concerns about the package.

‘We do need a very robust and aggressive stimulus package,” Gregg said last week. ‘But we need one that works and is focused on the problem, which is housing, and that essentially doesn’t end up aggravating the long-term debt of the country” with long-term spending.

Democratic advocacy groups had planned to run TV ads in New Hampshire to pressure Gregg into voting for the stimulus plan when it comes before the Senate.

Maybe now they’ll turn their TV lobbying campaign toward the Commerce department.

-- Johanna Neuman

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