Gregg: A Leader Of Health Care Opposition

In just a few short months, Sen. Judd Gregg went from President Obama's nominee for Commerce secretary to a leading voice of the GOP opposition to the president's health care initiative. If Democrats seek to push part of their health reform plan through the upper chamber through the budget reconciliation process--a procedural shortcut that would only need 51 votes, vs. the 60 it takes to break a filibuster--Gregg would figure prominently in the GOP resistance. Today, The Hill reports that Gregg has hundreds of procedural objections lined up that could block parts of the plan from making it through: "We are very much engaged in taking a hard look at our rights under reconciliation," Gregg tells The Hill. "It would be very contentious."

Since health care is counted by the president as one of his top budgetary priorities, it looks like Gregg was right about those philosophical differences that prevented him from taking the Commerce job back in February.