February 13th 2009
Fighting Rahmbama On Census Giving GOP A Spine
R
ahmbama has stepped in it, and the stink isn’t washing off. The Deceptive Duo’s attempt to move the Census to the White House so they can play Chicago ward politics with it has sparked more outrage than even Porkasaurus Socialistum, the stimulus spending bill – and none too soon. The GOP, seemingly on the verge of being reclassified an invertibrate, is finding its spine again.
House Republican leaders said Thursday they’re ready to go to court against President Obama if he doesn’t scuttle his plan to move the census into the purview of the Oval Office, saying it’s an unconstitutional abuse of power. …
Under Obama’s plan, the director of the U.S. Census Bureau, who has yet to be named, would report to White House senior management in addition to the Commerce Department, which oversees the bureau.
A Senate committee has scheduled a hearing next month on the potential change. Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are also pushing for an investigation.
GOP leaders sent Obama a letter to the White House on Wednesday demanding a reversal of the plan.
“If the president doesn’t acquiesce to our letter, then we will seek the courts,” said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., a ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said at a news conference Thursday. (Fox)
That’s what I want to hear! Obama promised an open administration and this outrage flies in the face of that promise. He deserves a long, hard, embarassing spotlight on this one, and I am glad to see the GOP is ready to shine it on him, instead of just shining it on.
Michelle Malkin linked to a post by former Census director Bruce Chapman in Discovery Blog:
It would be more expedient for the White House to have a pliable Secretary of Commerce in place if the aim is to “re-evaluate” the conduct of the 2010 Census in order to introduce adjustment of results through sampling and computer modeling. Gregg presumably would not have gone along–and would have been hard to run over.
But the legal issues will remain even if a willing partisan is nominated and confirmed as Commerce Secretary. There is a 1999 Supreme Court ruling that would make sampling-based adjustment difficult in the absence of compelling evidence that the customary hard count would be less credible. And that evidence not only is lacking, but a three year statistical study that was finished in 2003 to respond to this issue concluded just the opposite: adjusting the Census numbers through sampling and computer models could lead to a less credible Census result. A hard count has always been legally defensible. A fuzzy “adjusted” Census–where figures at the Census tract and block level would be demonstrably erroneous in many cases–could invite endless litigation and bad will.
Another problem for the Obama White House if it wants to change the Census approach: planning for the 2010 Census has been underway for years and now is in preparation for testing. The disruptions caused by an Administration decision to change those plans would cause great problems and probably agitate the resistance of career statisticians charged with responsibility for conducting the Census.
So, you see that while the vision was audacious, the execution was naive. Rahmbama thinks the November vote provides a mandate for crapping on the Constitution and shuttling all promises of openess, but they’re not getting away with this one easily.
And here’s the kicker from Chapman:
Finally, one wonders if the President understands that the Census is a function of government that requires not only integrity in fact but also the appearance of integrity. The reputation of the Census should not be compromised. It is hard enough to get people to cooperate in the conduct of the Census without creating a reputation for politicization.
OBVIOUSLY, the Census must be above politicization, and the fact that Rhambama didn’t think this important enough to be a barrier shows an utter lack of integrity, a commitment to move America as far to the left as possible in the years they have in power.
And they quickness of their moves makes me think they may not be counting on getting a second four years.
Rahm Emanuel continues to bring problems to the nascent Obama administration, starting with the teensy little item of having to apologize to the global Muslim community. I’d missed this when it broke, but it’s rich and definitely worth including in the Obama Swamp:
