Ex-Obama cabinet member says Obama never truly tried to be bipartisan

When President Obama appointed Republican Congressman Ray LaHood to his cabinet in 2009, he intended it as the first step toward achieving "that bipartisan spirit" he hoped would define his presidency. Seven years later, LaHood, Obama's first-term transportation secretary, is saying that goal ended up being nothing more than a pipe dream.

"I do not believe the White House ever committed fully to a genuine bipartisan approach to policymaking, despite the president's words to the contrary," LaHood wrote in his new memoir, Seeking Bipartisanship: My Life in Politics. While LaHood doesn't shield his own party from carrying some responsibility — nor does he doubt Obama's sincerity — he says the failure to achieve bipartisanship rests largely on Obama's "mistakes in judgment and political calculation that prevented cooperation between the political parties and sacrificed vision too easily for short-term gain."

LaHood traces the beginning of this dream's end back to Democrats' push to pass an economic stimulus package that didn't receive much Republican support. Ever since then, LaHood said, Obama has become more and more "isolated" and "insulated."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"Obama depended almost exclusively on a handful of folks situated in the White House," LaHood wrote. "He rarely sought counsel outside that group. He did not, as other presidents have done, place a high value on consulting with members of Congress."

The White House had no comment.