1) I don’t think you see many Cabinet Secretaries falling on their swords in the US – not the same notion of Collective Responsibility, and given that Gregg is still in the Senate and has had no role in creating the stimulus as it stands, it might be difficult to pin any failure on him.

2) While this suggests he’s irrelevant, we shouldn’t forget that he’s effectively running a massive bureaucracy, many of whom are already inclined to ‘go native’ towards business. I think Chris Bowers’ snarky post this morning gets this across

Bonnie Newman looks likely to be a placeholder, opening up the seat for 2010, and given that both Congresspersons (what DO you say for mixed gender delegations?!) are Democrats, the odds probably start with them (Hodes is, in fact, declaring this week) … but I guess the political climate will largely revolve around the stimulus…

I think I’m mainly just worried about an Air Force One scenario in which someone is trying to find a majority of the Cabinet to sign onto invoking the 25th Amendment!

Could it not just be a ploy to make people believe he really is post-partisan, so that he can then portray policies like expanded healthcare as radically centrist/bipartisan?

If NH-Sen is coming up for election in 2010, is Newman much more likely to win that than Gregg?

How much room will Gregg really have to play in Commerce, surely Obama will be able to keep him on a fairly tight leash?

And finally, if the stimulus package messes up, doesn’t a Republican Commerce Secy. present an easier (and better) fall guy than a Democrat?