Get Ready For the U.S. Census Fight, Chicago-style

Republicans are fit to be tied over the Obama administration's Tom DeLay-style strategy of removing the U.S. Census Bureau from the jurisdiction of the Commerce Department and transfering it to the White House.

Their biggest fear, of course, is that with the 2010 census looming, Democrats will attempt to redraw congressional districts to their party's ultimate benefit. (Not that Republicans have ever used politics as their guiding tool in carving out congressional districts to their liking, right Mr. Delay?)

"With all of its political implications, hijacking the Census from the Commerce Dept. and letting it be run out of Rahm's office is like putting PETA in charge of issuing hunting permits," a Senior Republican Senate Aide fumed to the Sleuth. (The aide said he needed to remain anonymous for fear of "being redistricted -- Chicago style.")

So is the White House trying to pull a Tom DeLay?



"All DeLay did was rearrange the deck chairs," said the irate GOP aide, adding, "this would allow Rahm to redesign the whole ship affecting everything from congressional districts to who and where eligible S-CHIP children, adults and 'poor' rich people live."

House Minority Leader John Boehner also blasted the White House move today. In a statement, he said, "The United States Census should remain independent of politics; it should not be directed by political operatives working out of the White House."

The New York Times -- a day before it was revealed that Obama would be removing the census from the Commerce Department's jurisdiction -- editorialized on Wednesday that Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) might not be the best choice to lead the agency tapped with conducting next year's census, given that he has routinely tried to cut census funding:

"Mr. Gregg was never a friend of the census," the editorial said. "As chairman of the Senate committee that oversees the Commerce Department's budget, he frequently tried to cut the bureau's financing. In 1999, he opposed emergency funds for the 2000 census requested by President Bill Clinton and the Republican-controlled House."

Problem solved on that front. Voila, the very next day, a Congressional Quarterly report revealed President Obama would be moving the Census over to the White House.

Stay tuned... the census fight will get interesting, and ugly.

