Ray LaHood: Why Republicans should support health care reform

By GottaLaff

Look who's going to be the next one to get attacked by his own party.

None other than Ray LaHood, former Republican congressman from Illinois, secretary of transportation in the Obama administration:

If I were still a member of Congress, I would proudly vote for the bill that President Barack Obama is championing and I would urge my colleagues to do the same, not because I don't believe in fiscal discipline, but because I do.

We do not need to look that far down the road to see the pain that failure to pass health care reform will cause. Americans of every background, class, race and political persuasion are suffering.

What?!

How?

Why?

When?

Why I....

Traitor!

The bill that will be voted on will reduce the deficit by about $1 trillion over the next two decades, and will reduce waste, fraud and abuse in the health care system. It will slow the rate of growth in health care costs and put America back on the path toward fiscal sustainability.

Wackydoodle!

The bill will give families and small business owners greater control over their own health care.

Terrorist!

While the ultimate vote on health care may not be bipartisan, the ultimate bill certainly is.

Socialist!

I also feel compelled to remind my former colleagues that contrary to what many people have been saying, the bill explicitly prevents federal dollars from being used to fund abortion.

Double-dealing, two-timing turncoat!

Go ahead, Michele Bachmann, I dare you.

H/t: VNDNBRG

President Obama Signs Executive Order Banning Federal Employees from Texting While Driving

Looks like President Obama is setting it up so Sec LaHood gets his national ban.

ABC News has learned that President Obama signed an executive order last night banning federal employees from text-messaging while on government business, driving government vehicles or using government equipment. The executive order also directs executive departments and agencies to encourage contractors and contractor employees to adopt and enforce policies to ban texting while driving on official government business.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood will announce the executive order in his closing remarks later today wrapping up the two-day Distracted Driving Summit. "This order sends a very clear signal to the American public that distracted driving is dangerous

Video- Kyl & McCain say Stimulus money failed, but how dare they attempt not to give it to us!

Kyl said it wasn't working, so Ray LaHood graciously offered to let them forfeit the money. Watch McCain try to rationalize the their situation.

**Oops, forgot to mention that the Senator is proud enough of this performance to put it up on his personal YouTube channel. h/t John.

Source: Only 'Pro-Life' White House Officials Invited to Prayer Day Event

So, they set up an event, then dictated who could and could not attend, then bitched because no one attended? How in their warped little minds would it have worked for President Obama to attend then? Guess all their fauxrage was just that, a big fat fake.

Focus on the Family founder James Dobson scolded the White House for neglecting to send a representative to yesterday's National Day of Prayer event at the Capitol, but a source familiar with the situation said the Obama team didn't have much of a chance. That's because the event organizers stipulated that the White House representative had to be opposed to abortion rights, according to this source.

"The administration's representative had to be pro-life," says the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "Nobody else was allowed to go."

National Day of Prayer Task Force Marketing and Media Manager Becky Armstrong declined to comment on the report. An E-mail message sent yesterday to Focus on the Family's vice president for media relations, Gary Schneeberger, went unreturned. The prayer day task force operates out of Focus's Colorado Springs headquarters and is chaired by Shirley Dobson, the wife of the Focus founder.

(snip)

But the well-placed source said the only Obama cabinet secretary to receive an invite to yesterday's event was Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, an anti-abortion rights Republican. LaHood did not attend the event.

Republican Rep. Ray LaHood considered for Cabinet post

By GottaLaff

We'll have to wait and see:

Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) is in discussions with the Obama administration to take a Cabinet-level post — most likely secretary of the Department of Transportation, according to knowledgeable GOP sources.

When reached on his cell phone, LaHood said only that Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), President-elect Obama’s incoming chief of staff, had contacted him last night. [...]But one GOP source said that LaHood was engaged in talks with Emanuel about the Transportation secretary position, and the Obama transition team would like to make an announcement about it on Friday.

LaHood, a centrist Republican from Peoria, Ill., who serves on the Appropriations Committee, was first elected in 1994. He announced plans to retire last year.

Here's his voting record.