One of the few silver linings of Judd Gregg leaving the Senate to become Secretary of Commerce seemed to be that he would minimize the politicization of the 2010 census (particularly the use of sampling to over-count Democratic-leaning constituencies, which the Clinton administration attempted with the last census, as Michael Barone notes here). Looks like the Obama team noticed and, amazingly, they will now have the census bureau report directly to the White House, rather than the Secretary of Commerce. The story doesn’t mention whether Gregg was consulted on the move.