More on the Gregg Mess

In Judd Gregg's full statement (reproduced after the jump), this paragraph stood out at me:

“However, it has become apparent during this process that this will not work for me as I have found that on issues such as the stimulus package and the Census there are irresolvable conflicts for me. Prior to accepting this post, we had discussed these and other potential differences, but unfortunately we did not adequately focus on these concerns. We are functioning from a different set of views on many critical items of policy."

Clearly, Congressional Republicans are furious about the decision to have the Census Director report directly to the White House. But "we did not adequately focus on these concerns" is what really gets me. How long did they spend discussing this nomination? What in heaven's name did they talk about? Gregg always seemed like a strange choice for the Commerce job given his attitude towards the department, and his major political differences with Obama. Now it appears those differences caused him to drop out of the running for the job. So why did Obama ask him to serve in the first place? And what caused him to accept?