Promised Bipartisanship, Obama Adviser Found Disappointment.

[elleng]

'When President Obama first won the White House, he recruited Ray LaHood, a Republican congressman, to join his cabinet. The appointment, Mr. Obama declared, “reflects that bipartisan spirit” that would distinguish his presidency.

Seven years later and now out of office, Mr. LaHood has concluded that the opposite turned out to be true. Rather than reflecting the bipartisan spirit of the Obama presidency, Mr. LaHood said his appointment as secretary of transportation came to reflect its failure.

Despite the glowing words, Mr. Obama abandoned his promise to govern across the aisle, Mr. LaHood said in an interview. The only elected Republican in Mr. Obama’s original cabinet, Mr. LaHood said the president never made a sustained effort to reach out and gave up too easily. As a result, he became isolated and reliant on a narrow group of like-minded advisers.

“They picked me because of the bipartisan thing,” Ray LaHood says, “and the Congressional thing, and the friendship thing.”G.O.P. Résumé, Cabinet Post, Knack for Odd JobsMAY 4, 2009
Anthony R. FoxxAnthony R. Foxx to Be Nominated for Transportation SecretaryAPRIL 28, 2013
That assessment from a man who served under Mr. Obama for four years punctuates Mr. LaHood’s new memoir, “Seeking Bipartisanship: My Life in Politics,” published last month by Cambria Press. While he expressed warm feelings toward Mr. Obama and approval of many of his policies, Mr. LaHood lamented the partisan fever that has characterized his time in office.

“I do not believe the White House ever committed fully to a genuine bipartisan approach to policy making, despite the president’s words to the contrary,” Mr. LaHood wrote in the book, which he produced with Frank H. Mackaman.

While he said he believed that Mr. Obama was sincere when he said he wanted bipartisanship, the president was hamstrung “by mistakes in judgment and political calculation that prevented cooperation between the political parties and sacrificed vision too easily for short-term gain.”'

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/12/us/politics/ray-lahood-memoir-obama-cabinet.html?

[merrily]

1. A player in the attempted killing of the USPS, La Hood should never have been an appointee of a

Democratic President.

This is how Republicans repay Democrats for bipartisanship.

[Xipe Totec]

2. As the Spanish proverb says: "Raise crows and they'll peck your eyes out." Ungrateful bastard. nt

[Blue_Tires]

3. Oh, right... The partisanship in D.C. was alllllllllllllll Obama's fault

Fucking asshole...

[geek tragedy]

4. Republican blames Obama for not being a Republican. zzzzzz nt

[yurbud]

7. good summary

[No Vested Interest]

5. He sounds like an ingrate.

His son Darin is now a Republican Congressman from IL, said to be more conservative than his father, Ray LaHood.
Could that have anything to do with Ray's current complaint about the President that appointed him to Cabinet office?

[Doctor_J]

6. So the DEMS were the ones guilty of not cooperating?

Did the interviewer remind LaHood of the McConnell meeting on inauguration day?