LaHood not included in White House list of Cabinet holdovers

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is not among the group of Cabinet officials the White House on Wednesday said would be staying on the job in President Obama's second term.

The White House has confirmed that Attorney General Eric Holder, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki will continue to serve in their respective posts.

Missing from the list is LaHood, who said previously that he was retiring after Obama's first term, but has appeared in recent weeks to backtrack.

"I've had one meeting with the president and he's a little bit busy now, but we'll get back together sometime early next year and we'll continue our discussion," LaHood told reporters at the Capitol last month, referencing Obama's deficit negotiations with Congress.

"You know what the president's busy doing right now ... trying to save the country," LaHood said when he was pressed for more information about his future plans.

LaHood's comments were a sharp change from October 2011, when the former Republican House member said that he was retiring at the end of Obama's first term.

"I’m not running for public office anymore,” he told the Chicago Tribune then.

In September 2012, two months before Obama was reelected, LaHood sounded a different note, telling reporters how much he loved his job.

"As somebody who's been in public service 35 years, I don't know if I've ever had a better job," LaHood said in September 2012. "This is a great job. I'll always be grateful to the president for giving me this opportunity, and I owe to him to sit down and talk after the election and see where it takes us."

LaHood was an Illinois congressman for 14 years before he was appointed by Obama in 2009.

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