People are saying that Ray LaHood, a downstate Illinois Republican representative, may get the nod for DOT. So far, the things mentioned as being in his favor are — friendship with the president-elect and his chief of staff, some pro-Amtrak votes, experience managing big projects as a member of the Appropriations committee (?), and his Republican-ness, for some reason.

This makes no sense at all to me. As I see it, then, there are three possibilities:

  1. Obama doesn’t intend the DOT secretary to do the heavy lifting on his transportation policies,
  2. Obama doesn’t really care about transportation, and
  3. It isn’t true.

Based on the limited knowledge I have to hand, I’m going to go with No. 3. I suspect this is not going to be his pick.