>> wan-- "washington journal" continues. host: ray lahood if you searched the internet for your name and stories that come up this.ke obama advisor, found disappointment. those are the stories that come your new book, "seeking fair?isan" is that guest: i don't like that headline. i believe bipartisan is in the president's dna. believes ink he bipartisan. he practiced it when he was a in illinois. mepracticed it when he named secretary of transportation a long time republican. the story that peter baker wrote in the "new york times" was pretty accurate. probablyhe headline

didn't really reflect my feeling about it. host: in your book, you do talk about the fact right off the aside?u felt shuttered guest: not really me. i just felt that the president presidents -- has a core of people in the white relies on.he really , -- obviously george w. on rove and andy car. i been around here long enough. you a -- nixon relied few others. every president does. by that.too surprised on some of the things that the president tried to get done on, they asked me to make calls and to try and intervene. part of the inner circle. the inner circle are really the people who helped the president

that job. host: you have chapter in here, some pages on an actual cabinet meeting that happened. bit.t to read a little this was a memo that was passed out. referring to the president, call on each member of the cabinet to report two minutes each on highlights from their department. you will call on the cabinet in order in which their departments were created, then you will call on the cabinet and then theals national security advisor with the chief of staff included. minutes, you write, i focused on department initiatives in promoted economic recovery, the president brieflily reporters follow the meetings, he told them he delivered three messages. the work,as proud of second we have to take extraordinary steps to shore up the financial system. charged us withgirardeaued

bringing out more efficiency. one of the meetings were much highly scripted than i anticipated. candidortunity to give advice to the president was nil. the meetings suggested how president was from those who did not fall within circle.r guest: well, i think that was an reflection of that particular meeting. in the beginning when we came in in, in 2009, the focus was on getting the economy. we were in a terrible recession. work.y people out of we were sort of assigned as a stimulus,economic $48 billion to spend it within two years and put a lot of to work. secondly, really the idea that president wanted to get out of iraq.

cabinet meetings were revolved around those two bigs. time, the president was spending in the oval office meetings was, how do we how do economy going and we get out of iraq. the part about getting the gotomy going, we $48 billion in economic stimulus that we had to spend within two years. assignedthe president vice president biden to kind of process.hat entire i developed a great relationship with vice president biden. he's an endeering friend today because of all the time we spent peopler on trig to get to work on transportation projects. reflectionshapter on a career of public service. my 35 years in politics and public service often with a front row seat on history, i did not ponder the meaning of passing. time slipped by too quickly.

as i move to the sidelines to of my career, however, i'm struck by two intertwined principle qualities politics that concern me persuasive, partisan and the absence of leadership. question. no notwithstanding that congress just passed a transportation a very bipartisan way. they passed an education bill to fix some things that were wrong in ano child left behind very bipartisan way. prior to that, over the last two years, each seen a government shutdown. we've seen people elected to republicander the banner. although they're tea party people who don't believe in government. here to vote no on everything. stalemate. terrible people really came here with the one goal their number was to do everything they could make progress.

pervasive.k it is the partnership is very pervasive. i was pleased that the congress passed the transportation bill in a bipartisan way and the president signed yesterday an education bill to fix some with no child left behind. so, now the congress is working on trying to get out of town and passing omnibus. hopefully that will be bipartisan. speaker ryan and leader pelosi that.king on host: i want to show some video from 1994 and see if you this.er is ray lahood. from illinois, you don't pronounce the s. pronounced illinois. i'm from the 18th district of illinois.

our freshman class introduced today tod a resolution a passporte work of that study congress over a period of two years and the committees of congress. as you all know, we have three committees the district of columbia, merchant marine and post office and the of our resolution today was to continue the work of a thet committee on reorganization of congress. to establish a task force that will use the information that the joint committee has available, to add at least five freshmen members to include the of our conference over a period of time to study committee structure. to determine if there's duplication and to report back to the conference no later than end of september our results

therewill be whether should be further elimination of committee. host: that was almost exactly 21 years ago. just turned 70. i wished i looked that young. right after your first election. what was that like to be part of republican congress? guest: it was extraordinary. a congressional staffer for 17 years and worked staff bob michael republican leader. i knew a lot of members of congress. i worked on the house floor. all the people in leadership. i knew speaker gingrich and tom army and all the people we elected. there weren't any surprises in that regard. the thing that i was surprised about on election night, republicans won the majority. worked for bob michael who served in the minority for 38 years, i never dreamed that

could come back into out inority after being the wilderness for 40 years. because newt nationalized the and put the contract with america out there for a lot ofpeople and that.s ran on it was exhilarating time to be to have theity, opportunity to vote on all of i talkedms that people about as part of the contract with america within the first days all of the reforms that we had talked about. so, it was exhilarating time. numbers one way the the screen we'll begin taking for ray a few minutes lahood. you were in the chair presiding livingston decided not to run for speaker. you write about it.

guest: there's a chapter on impeachment. the reason we wrote about it clear thatwas speaker gingrich announced that not going to stand for said whoer . the staff will chair the proceedings, he said ray lahood. because i developed a good style chairing the house. a style of fairness and bipartisan and making sure that rules and we didn't -- host: you knew the rules. rules.we knew the that was very helpful. when the speaker staff called me speaker gingrich wants theto indicator -- chair proceedings, i thought this my one minute of fame. bobhe second day, livingston from louisiana who already run for speaker and was known to have the votes to be right after the

proceedings was over, we were going to elect him. because of disclosure about infidelity, not similar to speaker gingrich's disclosures came about earlier, he came to the house floor and was first speaker. said i'm not going to stand for speaker. i'm going to resign from the these proceedings are over. chamber.ent out of the i did not know. no one knew. i said, democrats and republicans were scrambling around. pretty full that morning. i think people recognize this day, this was the day we were going to vote on the of impeachment. the people wanted to hear what the new speaker had to say. boom, he was out. in the halls of congress, there

members like tom others who were scrambling trying to figure out who the speaker will be. tom delay orchestrated the illinoisof hastert of to be the next speaker . that came about over a period of four hours. or six bob livingston made that inouncement and as i write the book, a democratic member, the chair. a democratic member comes up to and say -- up to me and says says, mel white, who's no longer the house. if ime up to me and said, can put together the votes, some talking, if i can put together the democratic votes, would you consider of

standing for speaker? said no, that's not going to happen. there are already people on my the aisle deciding who the speaker will be. it's not going to be ray lahood. that talk about how people viewed me as somebody who friendsrtisan, who had on both sides of the aisle. who had an ability to really reach people on both sides. ultimately, on, denny hastert got to be speaker. the other thing that happened that i wrote about in the book, is another democrat came up and me in the chair and said, should we suspend what while we tryere and figure this out? i made a decision. i didn't check with leadership the speaker'swith office. i didn't talk to the parliamentarian. was suchdecision, this a historic day after all that on.gone we needed to proceed with the to takes that were going

place on the four articles of impeachment. proceed. democrats walked out as we called for the first vote and came back in. we finished the day up. one of the things i'm proud of, peter, after everything was over, all the republicans met in rooms there in the capital to talk about what the speaker was going to be. this was after the all the votes taken and the house had adjourned. went to that meeting, speaker gingrich started the meeting off saying, now you know why i picked ray lahood to preside over impeachment. it was done fairly. their say and people voted and they gave me a standing ovation. fact very proud of the that we carried it off in a way that distinguished house of in a verytives controversial historic time in house.tory of the

host: you quote dick gephardt in your gook. destroyingstop altar of people at the morality. all have our imperfections. we've got to look at the fact president clinton was elected. he had his imperfections. obviously, then leader gephardt's point was, these were not impeachable offenses. that was not the judiciary concluded. it's not what the house conclu concluded. host: "seeking bipartisan" is name of the book. congressman from illinois. first call is henry in clyde, new york, democrat. go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my

call. , everybodyed to say keep talking about obama is not strong president. strong president. the head of the said, he will make obama a one term president. a box andot obama in obama can't do nothing about coalition together to fight. won't vote him. him to go toon for war. those people over there like france, they don't want to help obama unless they know countries are behind him. host: henry in clyde, new york, thanks for calling in. a box.sident is in

guest: well, if you look back at the nature of the presidency and you look back at other presidents, they face very difficult decisions. i agree with henry, i think strongnt obama is a president. i think his legacy will be what his firstabout during campaign. implementing national healthcare, getting us out of iraq, although obviously we're lesser extentto a than we were in 2009 when he presidency. i think there are a number of have things that he will as a strong legacy. what he did as president is what no other president was able to do. that's to pass national healthcare. he also brought a very lousy bad of a tailspin. we're in much better shape today

in 2009.ere he helped the automobile industry. the american automobile industry. he put a lot -- he helped put a lot of people to work. he put a lot of emphasis in the suremic stimulus on making that our economy could come back and be strong. they deserves a lot of credit for that. host: however, you are critical give nancysion to levers to legislative work with the republicans. guest: during the first two was a democratic majority. though rahm emanuel really reached out to people on and really made the effort to say, we want to be bipartisan. think the president wanted to be. i think in the end, they made a get the that we got to economy going. we got to get this economic stimulus. this got to pass

$870 billion bill. i think speaker pelosi said, we it.the votes to do let's go for it. theink that hurt president's. not to his own instincts, his own bipartisan instincts which i believe are really there. i say in the book, they're in dna. left up to him, he would have -- let's try to continue to get republican votes. sense ofd, there was a urgency about getting the economy going. speaker pelosi said we got the let's do it. on ourverett kentucky republican line, go ahead gary. caller: thank you very much for call. my i have a couple of questions. feel that before healthcare was enacted, wouldn't been a good feel that before hh care was enacted, wouldn't it

to lift thegood try ban from state to state and open for up between states insurance company in california to sell insurance here in kentucky check of and the economy -- kentucky? any economy here in my state, we are a coal state. the second question. everyw everybody -- butsident tries to be -- president obama has done to more than any president in history. host: gary, thank you. he uses the executive orders when he can get congress to even go along with

introducing legislation or having debates on rails. i think that has certainly been the case for president obama. when congress has been stubborn about their willingness to debate issues that the president thinks should be debated or to put the bills in the hopper and have a debate, i think he feels that his only other alternative is to sign these executive orders. other presidents have done it. so it is certainly not unprecedented. houseyear, the white tried to work with republicans. i know senator baucus, who was at the time the chair of the finance committee, tried to work very, very hard with republican senators on getting their views on national healthcare, on implementing national healthcare. in the end, they made a decision that they just couldn't come to a compromise. and so the congress ultimately passed it.

could there have been a better way of doing it? could they have included issues that you raise about the commerce clause and states selling insurance? probably. but i think there was a sense of urgency that they needed to pass national healthcare. from florida, the independent line. caller: good morning. what is the host's name? guest: peter. caller: nice to talk to you. host: thank you, sir. caller: first time caller. i will give you a little bio of me. i was raised in a democratic family. raised by nuns. i tried when kennedy was killed everybody up to

reagan camethen mr. along and i noticed, you know, the guy was tough. people were scared of him. personally, myself, i am laid up in a hospital bed in front of the television. and -- host: joe? joe, we are kind of losing your here, so if you could get to your question or your point for ray lahood. i'm sorry, we lost joe. let's take that opportunity, if we could, and go into present-day politics. he was recounting his transitions throughout the year. would you think about 2016 and

the race that is going on currently? caller: i have been watching this kind of activity for 35 years. seen, certainly on the republican side, a process like we have now. i think the fact that we have such a celebrity like donald trump in the race who has never and isvolved in politics using the most unorthodox methods to get elected to get the nomination. are a wideertainly range of candidates on the republican side. it looks like hillary will probably get the nomination, and all these presidential campaigns, it will be very, very interesting. host: have you endorsed? guest: i like jeb bush.

i do. i think he was a very strong governor in florida and i like his positions on many issues. and so i like jeb bush. host: going into a democratic administration as a republican, are you suspect of both sides of the aisle now? guest: i don't know about suspect. i think people have always viewed me as being bipartisan and i don't think anybody was surprised when president obama nominated me for secretary of transportation, which has always been, very bipartisan agency. and so i don't think people really look at ray lahood with a jaundiced eye or with suspect. i think they look at me as more someone who has worked on both sides of the aisle. but i have been a republican all my life and i will continue to

be a republican. i couldn't have gotten the job with president obama had i not been a republican because he was looking for a republican. and our friendship, obviously, in doing since we left -- endured since we left the job. host: my worst day on the job. guest: that was the day of the air crash -- host: in buffalo. guest: in buffalo, new york 149 people boarded the plane with the idea that they would arrive in buffalo safely. andbecause of pilot error very bad conditions -- icing on those 49 people pierced as a result -- perished. as a result, we implemented new rules. both of these pilots had flown from the west coast to the east coast before they started flying the plane. so innate our flight.

then they are expected to get in the plane and fly it. and they were poorly trained. they did the wrong thing when the plane i stop, and they -- iced up, and they crashed the plane. -- particularly those that are flying these regional jets, which a lot of communities are using now. host: amtrak funding. a new formula written into the bill. do you supported? guest: i'm glad congress passed a transportation bill. we need a vision. i like the idea they included a provision that if there is a profit on the northeast corridor, which is really where they make that money, that money gets plowed back into the northeast corridor rather than being used for other lines like in illinois or other corridors. i like that idea. i think it is a creative way to

make sure the northeast corridor, which does make s at annd ridership ai all-time high, the money will be there for it. and then i noticed in today's paper that they included a provision in their to raise the to raise thehere limit, particularly for those who were injured or killed in philadelphia for the liability. i think amtrak is -- is doing well, and i think we are treated very fairly in the transportation bill. host: margin is in richfield, wisconsin. -- martin is and where it's healed, wisconsin -- is in richfield, wisconsin. caller: good morning, c-span. good morning, ray. thank you for your service to

the country. guest: thank you. caller: with your obvious large depth of knowledge of american politics and having served their country, you mentioned the tea party, you mention some positive things and some not so positive things about barack obama. how do you think history is going to view barack obama? in my opinion, he is really the father of the tea party with his partisanship he exhibited with his administration. everything with what happened his first two years. i don't think we would have the tea party in the republican party right now if not for him. interested in your take. guest: i do not agree that he is the father of the tea party. i don't think he would agree with that, either. i think that the tea party came about because of -- and the leadership of the tea party came about from people who were antigovernment, who don't believe in government, and

helped elect people to come here to washington and shut the governments down. they ran speaker boehner out of office. as i said, a year ago, they shut the government down. they vote no on everything. and that certainly has nothing to do with president obama's philosophy. and i don't think he would associate himself with the tea party or consider himself to be the father of it, and i don't, either. host: is john boehner a friend of yours? paul ryan? guest: very much so. i served with john. he will go down as is bigger who worked very, very hard to get things done and make things speaker- go down as a who worked very, very hard to get things done and make things happen. he had a group of people in the republican conference who came here to be obstructionist, who came -- obstructionists, who came here to do everything they could to stop things they didn't

believe in. and they had some ability to do that. this is the tea party crowd. the crowd that basically shutdown the government, ran john out of office, but he did a good job. he was a good speaker. he is a good leader. paul ryan i have known since he came to congress. and i admire him very much. i particularly admire him for stepping up into this very important leadership vacuum and filling the vacuum. and doing it in a way that i think really distinguishes him and distinguishes the speaker's office. i think paul is going to be a very strong speaker. in my book, i talk about one of the real pillars of leadership is listening. and i think paul is and will be a good listener. he is already doing that. and part of listening event is carrying out what people have to say. and i think paul will do that. i'm very high on paul ryan is

and he is the next -- paul ryan, and he is the next generation of leadership in the house of representatives. the house of representatives is very fortunate that someone like pauline is willing to step up -- someone like paul ryan is willing to step up and fill the leadership. sacrifices. great he and his family both make great sacrifices. in fromrbara is coming pearl, mississippi. republican. caller: yes, hi. how are you? theuld like to know from republican you have on today, how easy would it be for the president nominee donald trump to become -- if he becomes the next president to pass on the

initiative he has been talking about with immigration? and what can be done to fix the health care laws pertaining to people who have insurance because i know prior to this law we always had great insurance. but after this law was passed, we wound up with very high deductibles. a $6,000 deductible. insurance through your jobs, your pay $100 a month for insurance plus you have an $8,000 deductible. it is very high. how can those issues be addressed? host: implementing policies by the president. guest: well, it is difficult because under our system of legislation passing, it has to come before congress, which is an equal branch of government

separate from the administration, separate from the executive branch. and we have seen how difficult it is for president obama to enact some legislation that he has wanted to do. if you just take the issue of -- of whether, you know, there is global warning and clean air legislation and so forth, it has been very difficult. but i give the president credit. he did pass national healthcare. he did get us out of iraq. he is working very hard on a trade bill. he has supported the education reform, the transportation bill. done, but it has to be done in a bipartisan way. house of the 435 in the or 100 senators gets their own way. when congress salsa big problems, when the address issues, they are almost always sound in a bipartisan way -- always solved in a bipartisan

way with compromise. that is the beauty of our system. to the issue of can trump get anything done, i don't think donald trump will be the nominee, and i certainly don't think that he will be elected president. but whoever is elected president will have to work with the men and women that come here from around the country elected by the people and -- and reach compromise and work in a bipartisan way. 435 of yourom the all, you would hear candidates a i am going to do x. would you all look at each other and say good luck to you? guest: i think what people would say is not only good luck, but, no. and talk to us about it -- but come on up and talk to us about it. host: does talking to congress really make it th -- make a big difference? guest: it makes a big

difference. retreatsed a couple of , and our whole notion was if you know somebody, it is much more difficult to criticize them. if you know their spouse, much more difficult. our first bipartisan retreat, we had over 200 members of the house, 150 spouses, and what hundred kids. first time a congressional kid ever met another congressional kid. when you know somebody, then you develop friendships, then you develop the opportunity to talk to one another. and that kind of report and that kind of relationship building can go a long way to really people talking to one another. carroll's read robert book, he would invite people to the white house, he would have them over for drinks. and frankly, president reagan did the same thing. bob michael was leader then, and

he would suggest if you democrats to invite down, and president reagan would do it. know, talk to one another, get to know one another, boom -- they would begin to work on issues. and that is -- that is very, very important. relationships are very important in trying to pass legislation and solve problems. host: want to ask you about two trends. maybe you don't think they are transparent automatic pilot -- they are trends. automatic pilot up in congress, lesson less significant of the president's cabinet. guest: the president's cabinet, i think, plays an important role with certain committees. you look at the homeland security committee now and you look at the director of the fbi

or how wery johnson are dealing with these terrorists, so they play an important role. if you havenk that a strong president, then obviously congress is going to look to the president. and the cabinet perhaps plays a lesser role. but some of these issues, they play a dominant role. i think duncan played a big role in this legislation that was signed yesterday on refining no child left behind. i know secretary fox played a big role in the secretary -- in the transportation bill the president signed. i think our trade ambassador has played a big role in working with congress on the straight legislation. it depends on the issue, but i think evident members come in and out -- i think cabinet members come in and out as the

issues bubble up to a certain extent. i don't know if i know enough about that to really comment. host: but you know the continuing -- with the cr -- guest: yeah. ryan wants to get back to regular order. he has come in late here on this particular budget, this particular cr, and this particular omnibus. i think next year he will tell the budget committee, give us a budget. then the appropriators hold their hearings, pass their bills paid been those bills come -- pass their bills. then those bills come to the house floor. i think that is really what paul ryan wants to do as a news bigger. that would be quite in the compost made because that hasn't been that around here in decades. host: mike is in pennsylvania. he is a republican. caller: yes. mr. lahood, thank you for taking my call. guest: good morning.

caller: good morning. i disagree with your characterization of tea party people. they do believe in government, they just believe in limited government. and i think our federal government has gone far field of what the founding fathers ever intended. my question is -- you can comment if you like -- but my question is the davis act. restrictse fact priorities and it keeps from hiring policies in our construction projects. and also, i think it keeps artificially high the price of public service construction jobs. feel about the davis-bacon act because i think it should be repealed. guest: i supported it when i was a member of congress. i think it does really help those people who build roads and

bridges earn the wages for very, very difficult work. these people are limited in the number of years they can work because of the hard work that they do. and i think davis-bacon has enabled many of these folks to earn a good living and really be able to take care of their families. the reason that i say -- you know -- i take your point about tea party being for limited government. my point is when i say they don't believe in government, they are the crowd that shut the government down. and that is my point. if you don't believe in government, then shut it down, we don't need it. what i take your point unlimited government and at think it is a good point. -- i think it is a good point. host: i had begun my four and half years in cabinet, you're right, with four expectations. the administration did not use my experience and network of relationships to build

republican support. even when they tried, which was not often, the results were makes. neither did the white house consult me -- with me on strategy for obtaining such support before taking legislation to the hill. too many times i came late to the game or the inner circle did not let anyone into the game at all. guest: i think, again, you look at what president obama was facing in 2009, several recessions, focusing a lot on the economy, and relying on just a handful of people to really give him the kind of advice to get us out of the economic mess that we were in. and my point on that was when they put the economic package together, $48 billion is a lot dot, butthat came to then the assignment when elsewhere. so i did have that relationship with vice president biden on economic stimulus. when it was all said and done,

they wished they had put $480 billion in because of all the people that went to work. we want really consulted that much -- were not really consulted that much on what the figure would be. if i had something to say, it would've been more than $48 billion. so i think, again, when you are president and you are dealing with these tough issues like the economy, like a terrible recession, like trying to the automobile industry back on its feet, like try to get out of iraq, then your time is limited and the number of people you can talk to is limited. but that is the way it was. host: why did you leave congress? guest: frankly because i felt that i had done everything i could possibly do. i was on the intelligence committee for eight years. term limited off of that. i was on the appropriations committee because i wanted to get things done for my district. atried a little venture

leadership and didn't make that. i felt that after 14 years it was time for somebody else. and we had accomplished a lot. and i like the idea of going out on top. i think it is public service jobs, you are not lifetime jobs. there is only so much you can do. and after 14 years, i felt it was time to do something else. i had no idea i was going to be secretary of transportation. i had no idea this rare privilege would have been offered to me, but it was the best job i ever had in 35 years of public service because ethically made a difference. host: bought michael, ray lahood, who represents -- bob michael, ray lahood, who repres tse days? guest: he is our oldest son. we have four grown children. in ran in a special election. he worked very hard.

he had a tea party opponent. and he did very well. he got 70%. and now he has been sworn in and is representing the 18th district. and i know he will be a great congressman. and carry on the long, long tradition. our district was once represented by abraham lincoln, bob michael, ray lahood, and now darin lahood. host: in those 35 years you have been here in washington, have the parties gone this way? they used to be quite a mix in the middle. guest: yes, there was. i think the parties have gone to their own corners. the republicans have gone to the right and the democrats have gone to the left. maybe a because it is -- result of real