This is a great way to solve several problems for Obama:
#1. It make the House Republicans look even worse on the bipartisanship issue. Coming on the heels of the House GOP's unanimous opposition to the stimulus package, this makes the GOP look like a bunch of sore losers who care more about scoring political points than solving problems.
#2. It makes bipartisanship much easier in the Senate, which is where its actually important. I'm sure Senate Republicans will be overjoyed to confirm a fellow Republican Senator to the cabinet after seeing two Democratic Senators sail through. By buttering up Senate Republicans now it will make it much easier for Obama to sway them to his side down the road.
#3. On a related note, by replacing one of his embattled original cabinet picks with a Republican it dispels some of the controversy surrounding the cabinet choices and shifts the focus back to Obama's willingness to listen to all ideas. There has been a lot of negative coverage lately concerning some of Obama's choices and this shifts the tone of the cabinet confirmations back in Obama's favor.
#4. Of course this also gives the Democrats another Senate vote and probably a fairly liberal one at that. Gregg was already voting pretty consistently with Obama but any replacement Democrat is going to vote with him even more.
Looking at it that way, this is a great pick. Not to mention the fact that Gregg has been the chair/ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee for the past 4 years and is highly qualified for the position. Plus, I think I may have just convinced myself that Gregg is actually a better pick than Richardson.
