LaHood for Transportation?
The Hill is almost reporting that Barack Obama will appoint Representative Ray LaHood of Illinois as Transportation Secretary.
In principle, I think this is a great slot for a bipartisan pick. In practice, Democrats tend to be better on transportation issues than Republicans, but there isn’t actually a ton of ideological linkage between these issues and the broad disagreements between the parties. You could think abortion is murder, and also that investment in high-speed rail would be a good idea. Or you could favor tax cuts and congestion pricing on roads. And of course lots of Democrats have terrible views on transportation issues.
As for LaHood, he’s no Paul Weyrich, but he did break with the GOP to support the Passenger Rail Investment Act and the Saving Energy Through Public Transportation Act so that seems promising.
41 Responses to “LaHood for Transportation?”
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December 17th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
I don’t get it. You’ve already got the token Republican in Gates, and given the prominence that energy, environmental and infrastructure issues are supposed to have when Obama takes office, why LaHood, a moderate at best, and not someone who would seem likely to be an effective agent of change?
December 17th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
So this takes LaHood out of the running as a potential candidate for Obama’s Senate seat in a special election. Interesting.
December 17th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Yes, my 1st thoughts went to LaHood in and the Senate seat as well.
December 17th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
If you have to have a Republican, wouldn’t a Republican mayor make more sense? (italics in honor of Matt’s use of ‘em….
December 17th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Oh, come on, Obama and Dem leadership can’t be that worried about losing Obama’s seat, can they? Just pick a Dem that doesn’t have ties to Blago.
December 17th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
It seems like the Republicans in the cabinet will generally be less good-looking than the Democrats, which is really the way you want to do things.
December 17th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
While I have my own feelings about LaHood’s utility, I think MY and some commenters are a bit off here.
While I can agree – to a certain extent – that Lahood is not bad on transportation, I thought this was your signature issue. And not only is Lahood far from a progressive minded transportation enthusiast, his record is spotty.
He may have voted for Amtrak – which a lot Rs did, especially in rail heavy states – but he has voted against subsidizing 18 routes of the rail network in ‘05.
I also think you should have some pause that he represented a district very non-urban and devoid of transit.
As to the posters:
As an Illinoisian, the risk of losing the seat to a Republican is not an issue. Whether it turns out to be an appointee (no chance for an R) or a special election, there is no chance. Scandal or not, IL has moved considerably to the left over the years and a downstate, non name like Lahood is not a prospect.
December 17th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
If it plays in Peoria…
December 17th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Newt’s handpicked man to preside over the Clinton impeachment in the House is being offered a post in the next Democratic Administration?
No We Can’t.
December 17th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
LaHood was a prominent George Ryan supporter, and a prominent opponent of Peter Fitzgerald. I’m guessing he doesn’t like Pat Fitzgerald. Is he on tape too?
December 17th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
LaHood also co-sponsored a Constitutional Amendment back in 1999 or 2000 with Dick Durbin to eliminate the Electoral College. One of my favorite memories (and stories) was from Nov 4, 2000, when I saw Durbin, (Sen) Paul Simon, Richard Daley and some others hold a rally for local Democratic candidates on the steps of the University of Illinois student union in Urbana. Afterwords, I managed to get up to the stage to shake hands with Sen. Durbin, and I told him how I’d ditched class one time to watch him and Rep. LaHood talk about their bill on C-Span, to which he replied:
“Well, it’s a good idea, but I don’t think there’s any chance of it passing unless we have a major electoral catastrophe.”
Eight years and one catastrophe later, I’m still waiting….
December 17th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
So Matt, are you going to try to take in some of the sessions at the Transportation Research Board annual meeting this year (Jan 11-15 at the Omni Shoreham and neighboring hotels, http://www.trb.org/meeting/2009/default.asp ). You’ll see more sessions about concrete and whatnot than you imagined possible. If I see you wandering about I’ll give a shout!
December 17th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Caterpillar is headquartered in Peoria. Incidentally, Peoria’s bus system is not awful.
December 17th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
This has been a devastating announcement to people who work in transportation and planning. From what I’ve heard all day, people are pretty down about it and are losing hope, fast.
December 17th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Not sure this is so disastrous – people should chill out a little bit – but I do note that Caterpillar’s stock price is up 1.94% while the Dow (of which Cat is a component) is down 1.12%, and the broader S&P 500 (of which Cat is also a component) is down 0.96%. So it was a good day for Cat.
December 17th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
WHY is transportation such a throw-away?
It may be the single most important issue we are facing, tying together housing, urban development, the military (no one really thinks we fight wars for other than oil, right?), the environment, the stimulus package… and we give it as a “sop” to a Republican from a city with a “not awful” bus system (poster 14).
Posters 1 (Bragan) and 15 (Overhead Wire) have it right.
As to 16, the appropriately-named “mindbender”: those of us who care about the country have been chilled to the point of freezing since the first oil shocks of the 70’s. WHEN will we finally have someone who understands the structuring importance of transportation? Clearly, Obama ain’t he. And I can find nothing in LaHood’s bio to suggest he will be a useful counselor. Sad, for all of us, even the chilled.
Well, on the bright side, we’ll all be warming soon….
December 17th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
As being from Peoria, our bus system is horrible and we have no Amtrak. However, LaHood is a legit moderate and can get many republicans in congress to back Obama’s plans.
December 17th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
Re Bragan
It is my understanding that Mr. Gates is a registered independent.
December 17th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Seriously, Matt, you ought to go over to the Shoreham mid January and liveblog the Transportation Research Board annual meeting. You’ll see tons of people from all over the world, especially a lots of engineers, people who do transportation and make it happen, as opposed to blather, pontificate, wonk or talk about it. As with any field, the details of what it takes to make things possible are simultaneously mind numbing and fascinating.
December 18th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
As for LaHood, he’s no Paul Weyrich, but he did break with the GOP to support the Passenger Rail Investment Act and the Saving Energy Through Public Transportation Act so that seems promising.
Did either of those Acts ever become law? As far as I can tell, no and no:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-6003
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-6052
December 18th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
As for LaHood, he’s no Paul Weyrich
True — for one thing, he’s alive.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20081218/pl_politico/16702
December 18th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Ideally LaHood will learn something from Weyrich’s example. As mentioned by others, he doesn’t seem to be bad, he just doesn’t seem like he’ll be the visionary leader that we need and that we could have gotten in Rep. Earl Blumenauer, Jeanette Sadik-Khan, Anne Canby, or others.
My best hope is that the vision will be coming from Valerie Jarrett and Barack Obama and LaHood is there to ensure that proposals make it through the Congress.
On the other hand, those Cabinet meetings will be interesting if LaHood sits next to Hillary, given his prominent role in the impeachment hearings.
December 19th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Paul Weyrich is dead, FWIW.
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