Dear President Obama: So now we have a self-admitted clueless Transportation Secretary?

Mr. President, how is it that we now have a Transportation Secretary that knows as much about transportation as you do about the economy, domestic policy and foreign policy... in short, nothing?

I've got to tell you that when the Obama Campaign Propaganda Arm known as the New York Times disses yet another of your moronic personnel choices, that should give even the thickest-skinned individual pause.

It's a shame that you think so little about the economic heartbeat of this nation that you blew off the importance of the issue... and stuffed a GOP rube into the slot, because, in his words,

“I don’t think they picked me because they thought I’d be that great a transportation person.... They picked me because of the bipartisan thing,” he explained, “and the Congressional thing, and the friendship thing.”

So, here we have it. No vision... no plan... no enthusiasm... no clue. A cynical choice that will accomplish absolutely nothing in the vital area of our Nation's transportation system.

While I do give Mr. LaHood credit for an altogether unusual honesty, I do question the complete lack of intelligence in his selection, and the complete idiocy of Senatorial approval for such a terrible appointment.

The money excerpt from the story?

But one of the astonishing things about Mr. LaHood, 63, is how limited his transportation résumé is, how little excitement he exudes on the subject (other than about high-speed rail) and how little he seems to care who knows it. So why exactly did President Obama pick this former seven-term Republican congressman from Illinois to oversee everything that moves?

Your disdain for the importance of your personnel selections (when you weren't lying about hiring lobbyists, of course... or appointing criminal tax cheats) and your cynicism that we wouldn't notice or care, having noticed, seem only to be exceeded by your arrogance, Mr. President.

And, I'm sure, you'll bring the same level of those characteristics to your selection for Supreme Court justice, as evidenced by your most moronic statement on appointments yet:

I will seek someone who understands that justice isn't about some abstract legal theory or footnote in a case book. It is also about how our laws affect the daily realities of people's lives -- whether they can make a living and care for their families; whether they feel safe in their homes and welcome in their own nation.

I view that quality of empathy, of understanding and identifying with people's hopes and struggles as an essential ingredient for arriving as just decisions and outcomes.

The law and Constitution be damned.

Yup... REAL confidence building going on here. And among those paying attention, more sleepless nights that your shallowness and arrogance will be the downfall of this Nation.

G.O.P. Résumé, Cabinet Post, Knack for Odd Jobs

By MARK LEIBOVICH
Published: May 4, 2009

WASHINGTON — Ray LaHood, the secretary of transportation, is not one to toot his own horn over how much he knows about planes, trains and automobile bailouts. On the contrary.

Jim Young/Reuters
Mr. LaHood’s ties to Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, were part of the reason President Obama appointed him.
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“I don’t think they picked me because they thought I’d be that great a transportation person,” Mr. LaHood says with refreshing indifference as to how this admission might play if, say, he were ever to bungle a bridge collapse.

Yes, transportation is Mr. LaHood’s day job, a post that a few days ago required him to attend a groundbreaking ceremony for a highway in New Hampshire, speak to a group about the dangers of tailgating trucks and discuss “bird strikes” on CNN.

But one of the astonishing things about Mr. LaHood, 63, is how limited his transportation résumé is, how little excitement he exudes on the subject (other than about high-speed rail) and how little he seems to care who knows it. So why exactly did President Obama pick this former seven-term Republican congressman from Illinois to oversee everything that moves?

Mr. LaHood posits a theory. “They picked me because of the bipartisan thing,” he explained, “and the Congressional thing, and the friendship thing.”

The “bipartisan thing” and the “Congressional thing” are self-evident: Mr. LaHood is a Republican with close ties to Capitol Hill. One White House insider described Mr. LaHood as “a master of odd jobs,” whose knowledge of Washington allows him to take on assignments as varied as lobbying lawmakers on the budget and helping political novices in the cabinet navigate Beltway social rituals (“cocktail situations,” as Energy Secretary Steven Chu calls them).

“The friendship thing” perhaps most explains why Mr. LaHood is in his job. The White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is one of Mr. LaHood’s closest friends, and wanted him around. Mr. Obama told Mr. LaHood as much when Mr. LaHood interviewed for the job in December.

Four months later, here is Mr. LaHood, smiling broadly in his sprawling office, sipping a “healthy” Frappuccino lunch (“healthy because it will keep me awake this afternoon”). Behind his desk hangs a photograph of Mr. Obama adjusting Mr. LaHood’s neckwear (inscribed: “This isn’t the House, straighten your tie”).

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