Census Update: Media Still Silent, It's Still "Politics as Usual" and It's Still Unconstitutional

Resident White House pit bull Rahm Emanuel will oversee the 2010 Census. Yes, it's nothing short of "politics as usual" to establish a permanent voting majority.

Yes, it's unconstitutional.

And, yes, Fox News remains the only major news outlet reporting the scandal. Anyone surprised?

Here's the latest...

News Busters reports on the media:

The Obama administration’s decision to have the White House supervise the 2010 Census -- a response to left-wing complaints that the Census was too important to leave under the authority of Republican Judd Gregg, the nominee for Commerce Secretary -- has thus far (as of Tuesday morning) drawn absolutely no attention from the three broadcast networks, with not a single mention on the ABC, CBS or NBC morning or evening newscasts.

John Fund at The Wall Street Journal explains the politics:

President Obama said in his inaugural address that he planned to "restore science to its rightful place" in government. That's a worthy goal. But statisticians at the Commerce Department didn't think it would mean having the director of next year's Census report directly to the White House rather than to the Commerce secretary, as is customary. "There's only one reason to have that high level of White House involvement," a career professional at the Census Bureau tells me. "And it's called politics, not science."

Michael Barone makes the constitutional argument in his blog at US News & World Report:

Here's an argument that it's unconstitutional for the president to take over the Census from the secretary of commerce. It goes like this: Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution provides for an "actual enumeration" and a statute passed by Congress provides that the duties under this clause are to be performed by the secretary of commerce. Article I (as Joseph Biden didn't know in debate) is about the legislative, not the executive branch. Hence, it is argued, the president can't substitute a sampling for the enumeration required to be done by the secretary.