Emboldened. Embiggened. Embarrassed.

Oh, Politico. You are a delight. This remarkably silly article makes me smile.

Gregg flip-flop emboldens GOP

Those must be some serious, serious weeds the GOP is in if the sudden reversal of Judd Gregg is a particularly emboldening circumstance. What else do they find emboldening? Nicely pressed slacks? Mixing some regular Folgers in with their Sanka? Getting an extra packet of Funyons from the Senate vending machine?

I mean, come on, Rep. Jack Kingston.

"He made a difficult decision to turn down a job that a lot of Republicans could take," said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.). "Here's a guy who's going to turn down his place in the history books."

Really? The history books? Can anyone honestly make the claim that Secretary of Commerce is a position of Historic Proportions? Outside of a few dusty academics and the odd political savant, can anyone even name any? Quick, who were W.'s? (No cheating with Wikipedia.) From my perspective, being Secretary of Commerce lands you in the history books somewhere between Thutmose IV and Chester Greenwood.

I especially love their rallying issue:

[B]y noting his differing view on the census, Gregg breathed life into Republican charges of a White House power grab over a critical Commerce Department function.

The right wing spinmeisters are also flogging this line.

On Fox tonight Sean Hannity called the Obama team's plan to have the Census director report directly to them "the biggest White House power grab ever."

His guest, some guy named Karl Rove, told Hannity he just might be right.

So I guess the GOP is no longer backing the unitary executive theory? Because they seemed all in favor of it a very short while ago, and to be worried about the Census being controlled by Commerce or the White House seems a wee bit intellectually inconsistent.