LaHood: Little Luck Winning Over Former Colleagues

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Sunday he’s having little luck convincing his former House Republican colleagues to back the stimulus package.

“I’m going to do everything I can to help the president find the votes for the conference report once the Senate passes this,” LaHood said during an appearance on CNN Sunday. “I’m going to work the phones, I’m going to talk to my former colleagues and do everything I can to persuade them that this bill really will put people to work.”

“Obviously, I wasn’t very persuasive since I wasn’t able to persuade anyone to vote for it,” he added.

He refused to address whether he’d have voted for the program if he were still a member of Congress, and emphasized he is now on board with the administration’s policies.

“I didn’t get elected to anything last November. I’m a part of the Obama team,” LaHood emphasized.

LaHood did say that he believed the bill to emerge out of conference would be something some Republicans would “look very carefully at.”

Watch a video of the interview here: