2010 Census to be under the control of Rahm Emanuel.

Is Obama playing politics with the 2010 census?  He is trying to get the Census Bureau to report directly Rahm Emanuel, White House Chief of Staff, and former head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Troubling?  Yes.

Based on the census results, district maps will be redrawn, and if Emanuel is in charge, those maps could be redrawn under political lines favorable to the White House.

Interesting that this is flying under the radar?  Yes, can you imagine the outcry if Karl Rove was in charge of the last census?

That legal fight has made Utah officials wary of the 2010 Census, and news out of the White House that the director of the Census Bureau will work under Emanuel has deepened that concern.

“The political land grab is stunning,” said freshman Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah. The census “is not intended to be political in any way shape or form. … We’re not even 15 days into this administration and they’re already working on the next campaign.”

Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, echoed those concerns, saying neither the Constitution nor Congress has delegated census power to the White House chief of staff.

“It would politicize the process much more than it needs to be, and it shouldn’t happen,” Bishop said. “It takes something that is supposedly apolitical like the census, and gives it to a guy who is infamously political.”

Legally, what department is responsible for the Census?  The Commerce Department, who might be headed by a Republican.   Even the Daily Kos (trust me, you don’t have to go there) admits:

One of the key concerns about Judd Gregg’s nomination for Commerce Secretary was the Commerce Department’s responsibility for the census, and the possibility Gregg would put his thumb on the scale in 2010.

That, in one of the few positives thus far associated with his nomination, is no longer a concern.

Following objections from black and Latino leaders, Commerce will be bypassed on census-related matters. Why would they object?

…And, of course, the census is key to House redistricting.

Now that the Obama administration has dipped their foot in this particular lake, they might want to see what other functions of Commerce could easily be moved elsewhere.

Fox News Report on the Census.

Prior to the announcement, changing the reporting rules, others had noted that Gregg might keep the Dems from “cooking the books”.

Seems as though the argument between sampling and an actual headcount.  Interestingly enough, the Dems are against an actual headcount (much like they seem to be against counting actual votes). 

An important thing to keep in mind when you consider the possibility for mischief is this. The margin of error for a sample of a large population unit is quite small, as the professional statisticians will tell you. But that margin of error increases as you measure smaller and smaller units, as the professional statisticians who favor sampling will admit when you press them. Redistricters build districts out of Census tracts (which may have 5,000 or so people) and Census blocks (which may have anywhere from a dozen to a couple of hundred). If you have a sampling procedure that systematically overestimates the presence of one particular kind of groups (let’s say Hispanics), then the sum of the errors in large numbers of heavily Hispanic blocks could be very big—and could be worth another Democratic state legislative district (one to be sure with very few voters). I’ve done redistricting myself and have been intimately familiar with congressional redistricting over the last 45 years, and the possibilities of distorting the process by sampling are great. If Judd Gregg can head that off, maybe it’s worth his leaving the Senate.

So, basically, with a head count, the reporting errors seem to be smaller.  But, when the sample size decreases (which happens if the “sampling” side wins), any error on the count significantly magnifies the outcome. 

So, if by the headcount, I make one error out of 1,000,000 heads.  I have not greatly changed the outcome.  However, if I make 1 error out of 100, I do change the outcome. 

And this is why the blank and Latino leaders objected….  And Emanuel, not Gregg, is going to be in charge….

How does that make you feel?

UPDATE:  Michelle Malkin has more on her site.

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