Judd Gregg Is The New Olympia Snowe

Politico (metric ton of salt included) is reporting that Sen. Judd "I've Got Your Commerce Secretary Right Here" Gregg is the new centrist linchpin to passing HCR.

In a letter to Obama released late Tuesday, Gregg welcomed the meeting as a chance for “constructive dialogue” and is promoting his own lower-cost approach focused on preventive care and guaranteed catastrophic coverage for all families.

His letter warns the president that the House- and Senate-passed health care bills can’t be the sole basis for the discussions. But in a series of interviews with POLITICO, Gregg has been open to specific deficit-reduction and cost-containment steps that could be taken to win Republicans’ support for health reform.

“I’m not on their reach-out list, so nothing may come of this,” Gregg said in an interview Wednesday. “But I’m ready to sit down and try to be helpful.” 

Oh sure, this'll work fine.  It's not like Judd Gregg's burned Obama before on bipartisan reach-out or anything.  He's totally trustworthy.  Just like Olympia Snowe and Chuck Grassley.

And that worked out great and got us a stronger, more progressive health care bill that garnered broad bi-partisan support, right?

In all seriousness, if Obama's dumb enough to fall for this, I give up.  Gregg's just trying to kill the process the same way Snowe, Grassley and Mike Enzi have.