LaHood chides GOP for convention attacks on Obama

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is chiding the Republican Party for the tone of its convention this week in Tampa, Fla.

LaHood was a Republican congressman from Illinois before President Obama appointed him to the traditionally bipartisan post atop the Department of Transportation in 2009.

But in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times this week, LaHood said the speakers at his party's convention have been too negative about the administration he has worked in for past three and a half years.

“When I was watching the convention Tuesday night, I was so struck at how nasty it was,” LaHood told the paper. “Not Mrs. Romney, she was lovely.”

Of the other Republicans speakers besides Ann Romney, however, LaHood said: "[They] give the president no credit for anything, even though they know he has reached out to them and been bipartisan.”

LaHood has been criticized by conservative activists for his support of the president's transportation initiatives like high-speed rail, but he told the paper “[I] was a bona fide Republican when he announced me and continue to be.”

LaHood said, however, that he was troubled by the harshness of the 2012 campaign thus far.

"I don’t like the harsh tone of this campaign at all," he said. "I think the president is going to run on his record. He saved the car industry. Turned the banking sector around. No president has ever done more. I’ve watched it. I’ve had a front row seat."

LaHood said he was "not bashful about my support of [Obama], and it’s not because he gave me this opportunity.”

But LaHood told the Illinois newspaper that the election in November would be "one of the closest elections in the 236-year history of this country and it will be a judgment call on the economy.”

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