Who Wants to Be a Commerce Secretary?

President Barack Obama is having trouble finding a commerce secretary. Is it a just a coincidence that neither of his choices for this cabinet position worked out? Probably, but people are becoming concerned.

He initially settled on New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, a former rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, for the post. However, Richardson was forced to remove himself from consideration after news surfaced that he was being investigated by a federal grand jury in his home state for possible pay-to-play violations. Coming in the wake of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's corruption charges, that revelation was a sure disqualifier.

Then Obama decided on Senator Judd Gregg, a Republican from New Hampshire. Obama had hoped that offering a cabinet position to a senator from the opposite party would solidify the bipartisan image he is trying to build. The Democratic governor of New Hampshire even agreed to replace him in the Senate with another Republican or an independent who would caucus with the Republicans. This was done to alleviate GOP fears of that Obama had ulterior motives in choosing Gregg for the commerce position, i.e., to steal another Senate seat for the Democrats.

Gregg initially accepted Obama's offer to join his cabinet and started preparing for the transition, but ultimately backed out and decided that he would rather remain in the Senate instead. He said that, after he had time to carefully consider everything, he came to the conclusion that he just had too many differences of opinion with President Obama on key economic issues.

Now Obama will have to settle for his third choice – and that’s assuming whoever he picks next will have no skeletons in his or her closet and that this person actually wants the job. The President can’t afford another distracting screw-up here. He and his team of selectors need to be extremely cautious this time around. If so, the third time will likely be a charm and we’ll actually get a new U.S. Secretary of Commerce the near future.