Cabinet GOPer happy in ‘catbird seat’

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a Republican in President
Obama’s Cabinet, is happier serving a Democratic administration than he
was as a member of Congress when his party controlled the majority.

“I consider myself in the catbird seat right now — more than I was for the last 14 years in Congress,” he told a room full of reporters at breakfast organized by the Christian Science Monitor. “… I’m in as good of a position as I’ve been in my 30 years in Congress.”

{mosads}The former centrist House Republican from Illinois also spent 17 years as an aide to former House Minority Leader Bob Michel (R-Ill.), a consensus-builder willing to cross the aisle and work with Democrats. While a member, LaHood was one of the few lawmakers in the conference who would openly criticize the hardball tactics and conservative firebrand politics of former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and his allies.

LaHood said he expected to serve as “ambassador at-large” to Republicans on Capitol Hill, reaching out beyond his transportation portfolio to work with GOP colleagues on administration priorities such as climate change, energy and healthcare. When asked what the Republican Party should to do rehabilitate itself, he declined to offer any advice.

“[As an Obama Cabinet member] I don’t think I ought to be an adviser to the Republican Party,” he said.

LaHood had plenty to say about Obama’s transportation agenda and track record so far.

Despite Vice President Biden’s bungled advice about avoiding travel because of the swine flu, LaHood said the health scare had little perceptible impact on the nation’s airline and travel industries.

“People aren’t flying to Mexico, obviously, if they don’t have to,” he said, “but [the flu outbreak] hasn’t had an impact on people getting on planes and flying around the country.”

After a meeting this week with General Motors President and Chief Operating Officer Fritz Henderson, LaHood said he was “very optimistic and enthusiastic” about GM’s ability to restructure after bankruptcy and remain competitive without any additional government assistance.

{mosads}“I left the meeting feeling that GM is in very good hands,” LaHood said.

LaHood focused most of his comments on the administration’s commitment to injecting the economic stimulus funds into the economy as quickly as possible.

A group of senior officials at DOT, known as the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) team, will monitor the way the funds are disbursed. Since the Obama administration began, the DOT has announced the availability of $44.8 billion for highway, road, bridge and airport construction and repairs across the country. Already, LaHood said, more than 3,000 such projects are underway.

One of the department’s main goals, LaHood declared, is to get a high-speed rail system in place that will be the envy of the world in 30 years. The economic stimulus bill included $8 billion for high-speed rail.

Responding to a question about Obama’s commitment to reducing earmarks in the transportation bill, LaHood reiterated the president’s aversion to the member-directed pet projects and said he is working with lawmakers, including House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.), on a reform plan.

“The message has been sent from the president,” he said. “The president doesn’t like earmarks.”

He also emphasized that the $44.8 billion in transportation stimulus funds contained “no earmarks, no boondoggles and no sweetheart deals.”

“So it can be done,” he said.