I’m sure that Judd Gregg dropped out of consideration for Commerce Secretary because he just happened to notice that he and Obama had basically no policy beliefs in common. And because the White House was politicizing the Census. And not because Gregg is a hopelessly corrupt.
Gregg was responsible for millions of dollars in federal aid towards a real estate project in which he had hundreds of thousands of dollars invested. To say this is ethically questionable is to put it lightly. The Obama Administration refuses to comment, and there are two possibilites. The first is that they allowed him to withdraw so they didn’t have to publicly humiliate him. The second is that they are incompetent and their million-page vetting questionnaire did not include possible conflicts of interest with the duties of the Commerce Secretary. I have a feeling I know which of these was the case.