Ray LaHood at Transportation, What is Obama Thinking?

Originally posted at The Seminal.

Ray LaHood (R-IL), who has a lifetime LCV score of 27% (p. 31, pdf), is your new Transportation Secretary. I repeat, a Republican with a consistently bad record on environmental issues has just been nominated to run the Department of Transportation.

Shit.

From his perch atop the Department of Transportation, LaHood will be a key player in the new administration's public works projects designed to stimulate the struggling economy.

Here are some of LaHood's lowlights:

Voted NO on keeping moratorium on drilling for oil offshore. (Jun 2006)

According to the LCV, in 2007 alone he voted against the environment on liquid coal, oil shale, clean air, electric transmission corridors and global warming.

In 2007 he apparently wrote this in a letter to a constituent:

Any energy policy that addresses our petroleum needs must look at increasing our domestic supply. Several areas in the country offer opportunities worth exploring to increase domestic petroleum production, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), other areas in Alaska, the Rocky Mountain region, and along the continental shelf. The technology exists where we can safely extract oil and natural gas from these areas and not adversely affect the local and regional environment. Increasing efficiencies and technological advancement allow us to capture more resources from a smaller footprint.

Right, you're thinking, but he won't be making energy policy. The fact that he was approaching the problem of fueling our vehicles in the wrong way entirely is not encouraging.

He is "known as 'grumpy' by his colleagues".

According to his former press secretary, LaHood "considers himself a real conservative":

Though LaHood is often described as a moderate Republican, that's something of a misnomer, Tessier says. She now works in a public affairs firm but used to be Michel's press secretary.

"Ray considers himself a real conservative," she says. "I think people who are conservative with temperate personalities are sometimes branded as moderates, but that has more to do with their personality."

This morning, Ryan Avent offered three possibilities for the meaning behind this pick:

1. Obama doesn't intend the DOT secretary to do the heavy lifting on his transportation policies
2. Obama doesn't really care about transportation
3. It isn't true

So, which one is it?

To be fair, Progress Illinois takes a good look at the potential upside:

So what can we glean about LaHood's record on this issue?

The moderate Republican has broken with his party over Amtrak funding, voting yes last summer to expand passenger rail service. In 2005, he told the Peoria Journal-Star that "we've got a good Amtrak system in Illinois and I don't think we want to destroy it by talking about privatization."

In 2006, he received a 66 percent rating from the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, a major transportation construction lobby. He also voted in favor of the Saving Energy Through Public Transportation Act of 2008, a bill to promote increased public transportation use that garnered string bi-partisan support. Other than that, we know very little.

But, between our addiction to fossil fuels, our crumbling infrastructure, the likely collapse of big auto, the popularity of T. Boone Pickens, and OPEC's stranglehold on our means of fueling our vehicles, the role of Transportation Secretary is likely more important than ever.

What leadership has Ray LaHood shown on this issue other than voting with most congressional Democrats on some issues for the past few years?

How is Rep. LaHood uniquely qualified to lead the DOT in such a critical time?

Between this and the news that known bigot Rick Warren will speak at the inauguration, today has been a sizable letdown. I have to assume he is willingly offending progressives in order to carve up as much of the center-right as possible.

What do you think: Does Obama really think Ray LaHood is the best person to run the Department of Transportation or are there other motives at play?

Follow Josh Nelson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/josh_nelson

Comments

[AnotherMcIntosh]

All of us have encountered people who want to resolve issues by spltting the difference. We can remember our our earlier experences with them.

I wonder, was Obama influenced by the story about Solomon?

You know the story. The one where he was considered to be wise because of the way that he responded to two women who both claimed to be the mother of a baby. The choice that he made was to tell both women in a convincing way that he would kill the baby and give half to each of them. The non-mother thought that this was fine. The threat of the baby's death caused such dispair to the mother, however, that she pleaded with Solomon to save the baby's life and to give the baby to the other woman.

There are people who have heard this story and been told that Solomon was wise rather than reckless. The story has a happy ending because Solomon was ultimately able to distinguish the actual mother from the pretend one.

When Obama is now preparing to place LaHood in a position of power within his Administration, is he really planning to bring us all together? In the story of Solomon, Solomon did not actually cut the baby in half nor did he give it to the pretend mother.

[mouselion]

Knowing nothing about him but what I learned from this article, I'd say it must be his support of public transportation, which I agree is important we get back on track. Ironically, Bush defunded public transportation as an excuse for "paying" for Iraq.

[Northlite]

When Bill Clinton was in office, we had policies and programs that truly acknowledged the complexities and room-for-creativity of transportation. We built bikepaths, using innovative paving technologies. We began to repair innumerable wetlands damaged lack of flow, and developed new highway run-off technologies to limit negative impacts on the surrounding land. Intermodal transportation planning was the byword, connecting pedestrian, bicycle, bus, train, car, boat, and train. There was a conscious and policy directed effort to link highway dollars with improved air quality and public health and safety. Historic Byways, Intermodal Surface Transportation Act of 1993, huge investments in public transportation, etc.

Is Ray LaHood the man to lead us to the next frontier of transportation? Will his highway dollars lever and encourage new technology, high energy efficiency and alternative technologies(biking and walking among those "alternatives", reduce our dependence on foreign oil, etc.? I don't think so!

I'm a big fan of Obama. This is an opportunity lost to benefit the American people and their physical and health environments. Ah well--None of us are perfect, are we?

[jaglon]

I am all for someone who wants to boost passenger train service in this country. If you have ever been to Europe and ridden the rails there (and I have) you would be extremely angry at our sorry rail service in this country. We are woefully behind every major country in the world when it comes to rail service.

It also has to be publicly funded. It is the only way to do it. I prefer the trains to air travel (and I love flying) because it is relaxing and you can enjoy the scenery. The problem is that our trains are slower and most of them do not have dedicated tracks. The freight companies own the tracks so passenger service has to give way to freight in areas where track use is in heavy demand. The cost of gas will not stay cheap for long, as soon as the economy rebounds the price will go right back up to where it was last summer. We need trains and fast ones. If LaHood can promote this then I say way to go Obama.

[FreedomAgain]

I lived in Germany for 5 years. You could go anywhere for a few bucks and you could set your watch by the trains. Lets hope they can do as nice of job, if they have plans of something like that.

[KickerBoard]

Nothing surprises anymore. Another disappointment. I guess progressives are just supposed to vote, then shut up while all the one-time skeptics, haters and naysayers are mollified at the expense of the issues that won the electoral mandate in the first place.

[MilesTone]

Hey Obama, are there any qualified black males, other than Holder, that you are considering?

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

I'd be interested in any SecTransp's views on mixed modal interaction and cross-modal subsidies.

We have to stop looking at planes, trains, and automobiles as if they are not to some degree "substitutes" in economics terms.

You want to get from A to B? Your choice depends on price, distance, time, convenience, flexibility, taking off your shoes, etc. Those more than how many wheels has the widget.

-- A Civil (but not always polite) Engineer

[bohite]

The Secretatry of Transportation has as much weight as Barney ( the first dog) in a convention of Rottweilers. Obama sets the agenda,the Sec of Transportation complies.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

And, as many Bush appointees have proven, competence and ideology indeed do matter.

[SailFree]

Does this mean that Obama has abandoned the Church of Global Warming? If so, it is good news, as that church's dogma is faith-based craziness.

There is NO scientific evidence that the Earth is going through an abnormal climate change, and even less that it has anything to do with man-made activity, and even less that it has any relation to carbon.

The entire foundation of the Global Warming Religion is flawed computer models! We're now in a sun=cycle based COOLING cycle, and it will get worse. Burn that carbon!

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

There being an infinite supply of dinosaur goop, of course.

[phillysteve]

Other motives or not, the choice of Ray LaHood as DOT Secretary isn't a good one. Isn't there someone outside of the government who knows more about U.S. transportation challenges that Pres-elect Obama could've tapped?

I'm very dissapointed in this selection, and hope that it's an interim measure.

[SailFree]

I'm available. (Just kidding...) After reviewing LaHood's positions, I find that I agree with most of them re transportation, other than supporting boondoggles such as Amtrak and other than deliberately raising gasoline prices. Oh well, can't have everything. Now if he were just as pretty and logical as Michelle Malkin...

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Because roads and airports receive no state, federal, or local funds; they're all 100% usage-funded.

Riiiight.

[jaglon]

Amtrak is NOTa boondoggle. Just because you do not like to ride trains does not mean that it is a waste of money. The fact is that more and more people are riding trains in this country and we need to upgrade to high-speed rail. Amtrak has been making a steady profit for the last two years and you cannot have decent rail service unless it is publicly funded.

Go to Europe and ride the rails over there. You will be pissed off about how much money we waste on projects here that only benefit narrow groups of people. Over there the trains are publicly funded. They are clean, fast, and have dedicated tracks. They are great way to travel and see the country.

[FernandoRuiz]

I trust Obama's judgment with his cabinet picks. Obama has stressed repeatedly that he will be the final decision maker in the administration and will not just sit back and listen to what his cabinet says like Bush. This is also his way of pandering to Republicans and setting himself up as a bipartisan President. He did say before the election that he wanted a team of rivals in his cabinet, and he wanted to include all sides of the argument, I think people are forgetting that.

[SailFree]

How about Reagan's policy with the Soviet Union? "Trust...but verify!"

Obamamania has been a faith-based religion all along. A BIG GAMBLE, in Las Vegas terminology. His policy prescriptions, as he said, were guaranteed to raise energy prices. He proposed raising taxes in the face of a bad economy, pretty much a guarantee of worsening everyone's financial health.

Don't higher energy prices constitute a tax? I thought 95% of people would get a tax cut!

This "Republican" doesn't sound like much of a sound energy policy guy to me. Obama's energy secretary wants the government to inflate the price of gas to force you to change your habits? Obama says that this isn't a good idea "right now." The question would be, is it ever going to be a good idea?

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

I love that "Trust but Verify" quote.

Why haven't all the Reaganistas been pressing it the last seven years?

We can start with verifying Iraqi WMD's.

[SailFree]

Clearly partisan BS. Bush did NOT simply listen to cabinet "experts." Rumsfeld and others wanted to cut and run from Iraq, for example, and Bush's Surge policy was the exact opposite of what advisors told him to do. Stop the parroting of left-wing mantras and mythology. If you can't grasp reality, how can you deal with it?

[BSERIUS]

One of Obama's better picks.... Offshore drilling , Coal.Nukes , Hydro wind , solar are all IMPERATIVE to make our country energy independent... He is from Illinois and knows that Southern Illinois U is using Clean Coal ( yes it is) in its physical plant.. And We have the Saudi Arabia of coal here.,,, Fossil Fuels are Good and can be done in an environmentally sound way ( yes we can)

[SailFree]

Unfortunately, the left-wing enviro mantra is "NO WE CAN'T!"

[SailFree]

One hopes that those remain his positions! When RevWright became clearly delusional, he was pitched and Obama departed his Chicago church. Now that the Church of Global Warming is being shown a fraud and a hoax, one can hope Obama will throw Reverend Gore overboard too.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Muppet News Flash: He wasn't nominated for Secretary of Energy. Thank gawd.

That spot went to a Nobel Prize winner. Whew.

[BSERIUS]

be truthful, you didn't even read past the first sentence of the article

[truegreen]

the transportation pick i juicer than the Rick Warren story. Seriously, what was Obama thinking? he could of gone with a bettern candidate than they Ray Lahood. I mean, gosh!

[lucidthoughts]

Sad, that Josh Nelson's article isn't getting any front page coverage by The Huffington Post. The Rick Warren choice is getting big play, BUT not this very important appointment! Which is not at all being scrutinized by the so-called liberal progressive media. Shame.

[MSB]

I don't care what kind of triangulating and pragmatic crap that supporters (and I have been one) are spouting about unifying the country. This is a ridiculous choice.

I am rapidly souring on Obama. He seems more interested in placating the zombies that supported the historically awful administration than he is in fixing the country.