U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood is an engaging, approachable guy. That may explain why the Republican House member from Peoria was offered that Cabinet post in the Democratic administration of Barack Obama.

During his time at the U.S. DOT, LaHood has appeared in videos as part of his “On the Go” effort to answer questions about transportation and administration policy. The video above shows LaHood answering a question that takes a light-hearted jab at LaHood’s habit of starting his answers with “lookit.”

LaHood has announced he’ll be leaving his post soon, but he’s sticking around until a replacement is found.

LaHood is a consummate statesman, who will be missed in Washington, D.C.

U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Tarkio, Mo., wants answers from President Obama about delays in setting up health care exchanges as part of the Affordable Care Act.

Graves, chairman of the House Committee on Small Business, said the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress promised that health care exchanges would be in place during 2013, before the ACA takes effect in 2014. Recently the White House announced it would be 2015 before health care exchanges will be operating.

Fox and Friends interviewed Graves about his concerns.

U.S. Postal Service plans to stop delivering mail on Saturdays starting in August may have to be pushed back at least a couple of months.

The General Accountability Office issued an opinion Thursday that a continuing resolution passed by Congress earlier this year was meant to cover current operations through at least the end of the fiscal year, on Sept. 30.

“We see no language in the fiscal year 2013 Continuing Resolution to indicate that Congress did not expect it to continue to apply” current and traditional delivery standards, the GAO wrote in a letter to members of Congress.

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe has been seeking congressional approval to eliminate mail delivery on Saturdays, but require the delivery of packages on that day, starting in August. Donahoe said the change would save money for an agency which lost nearly $16 billion in the past year.

Congress will be the final judge of what the USPS can or cannot do.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn is expected to cut $400 million from education spending in a budget he will unveil to lawmakers on Wednesday.

Quinn’s staff said the General Assembly’s failure to correct a $96.7 billion deficit in the state’s pension systems will force the Chicago Democrat to make cuts he opposes.

“These reductions are a direct result of no action on pensions,” Quinn Budget Director Jerry Stermer told The Associated Press.

Stermer said the economic recovery will allow the state to pay down about $2 billion in unpaid bills. Quinn also is expected to praise the state’s largest employee union for agreeing to a contract that will save $900 million in health care costs.

The Quincy Herald-Whig will provide visitors to www.whig.com with live streaming options for Quinn’s budget address starting at about noon on Wednesday.

Quincy Herald-Whig | Illinois

Illinois Treasurer Dan Rutherford, R-Pontiac, was in Quincy this week to talk about the unclaimed property program and to touch base with local supporters about a likely run for governor in 2014.

The longish clip shown above is the kind of analysis candidates do as they’re looking at their chances in an election. Rutherford talks about everything from his statewide vote totals to his 22 percent support in Chicago — 20 percent is thought to be the minimum needed for Republican candidates to win statewide.

Rutherford said he’ll make a formal announcement in late spring or early summer.

Lisa Madigan has a 9 percent lead over incumbent governor Pat Quinn in a poll conducted by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute.

Illinois Attorney General Madigan has the support of 31.9 percent of respondents in a poll that contacted 600 Illinois residents. Quinn had the support of 22.9 percent. Bill Daley, a former White House chief of staff, former U.S. Commerce secretary and brother to former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, had the support of 11.9 percent of likely Democratic voters.

Republicans who are mulling a run for the office did not have that amount of support or very much separation. Illinois Treasurer Dan Rutherford had 10.2 percent support among respondents. State Sen. Bill Brady had 9.7 percent and U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock of Peoria had 9.1 percent. Former U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh had 5.9 percent, Sen. Kirk Dillard 3.2 percent, Adam Andrzejewski had 2.2 percent and Dan Proft had 1.6 percent.

The poll sampling also showed a much larger number of Democrats than Republicans.

Politicians had things to say about Tuesday night’s State of the Union speech — some had lots of things to say.

Here are the abbreviated quotes from those representing Illinois and Missouri.

“Tonight we heard President Obama make the case for an economy that grows from the middle-out, not the top-down. The president spoke about an American economy based on manufacturing and built by the most skilled, best paid, workers in the world. He also urged Congress to invest in the things that will make America stronger, smarter and more prepared for the future – clean energy, education and infrastructure.” — U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.

“I share the president’s optimism that America’s brightest days are ahead of us. His willingness to improve economic stability should start with bipartisan proposals, like the shared pain of the entire Simpson-Bowles plan, not just a piece of it. If we can put aside our political differences and work together to pass a long-term solution, we would avoid the pending sequester and send a strong signal to our creditors that America remains a stable place to conduct business.” — U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill.

“We already know the biggest challenges facing our country, but we also already know the obstacles. As the president pointed out, tackling the debt in a comprehensive, balanced way would unleash enough capital to boost jobs in every sector of the economy. Missouri needs those jobs, and our families and businesses need economic certainty. But we get nowhere without bipartisan compromise, and elected officials have got to give a little, so everyone can get a lot.” — U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.

“So, let’s get back to reality. This was the eighth time in four years the president said ‘it’s now time to focus on the economy.’ Darn right it’s time to focus on the economy — and on private sector jobs that pay the bill. Government jobs are fine, but government jobs don’t pay the bill – they are the bill. We need to focus on the private sector, on energy, on job creation – that really will help make America what America can be.” — U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.

“It was refreshing to hear the President lavish attention on the need to move our economy forward. What frustrates me and so many others is the lack of emphasis on job creation during his first four years in office.
“Instead, we got ObamaCare, tax increases, Dodd/Frank regulations, and mountains of more regulatory burden on the backs of hard working taxpayers.” — U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Peoria.

“The president did not outline the path to a strong economic recovery that our nation needs to hear. Despite last quarter’s economic contraction and last month’s unemployment increase, President Obama holds to a tax-and-spend agenda that is destructive to economic growth. Washington has a spending problem, not a revenue problem, and American small businesses and families should not be expected to foot the bill.” — U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Tarkio, Mo.

Bing is launching a new real-time feedback function just in time for President Obama’s State of the Union address next Tuesday.

The search engine giant will launch www.bing.com/politics on Saturday. During the president’s speech Bing Pulse will allow viewers and listeners to vote every five seconds with their reactions.

A recent Bing survey found nearly 75 percent of Americans identified themselves as active participants or observers in online political discussions.

Other features of the site include:

• Non-partisan news or filters that allow viewers to filter left- or right-leaning sources.

• Twitter trending conversations.

• Videos of former President Jimmy Carter and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich on the speech.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin asked Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president and CEO of the National Rifle Association, during a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee about the view that some citizens need weapons to protect themselves from the government.

LaPierre answered that lots of people believe they need firearms to protect themselves in natural disasters, etc., when the government would not have the manpower or the ability to protect everyone at once. He mentioned hurricanes and tornadoes, but did not bring up the case histories from Hurricane Katrina when some of the survivors in New Orleans were victimized by criminals.

When Durbin then asked Baltimore Police Chief James Johnson how he feels about people having guns to target police, LaPierre can be heard on the tape saying, “That is not …” before his microphone went dead. Johnson then said people with guns fearing the government is “scary and creepy.”

Regardless of how someone feels about gun control, this video and the warped way it portrays gun owners’ concerns — as well as LaPierre’s comments – is both scary and creepy.

Nate Silver writes on the FiveThirtyEight blog that the lack of compromise in Congress can be linked directly to the loss of swing districts.

Silver wrote that in 1992 there were 103 swing districts in the nation. He judged this by funding districts in which the margin in the presidential campaign was within 5 percentage points. “I estimate that there are only 35 such congressional districts remaining, barely a third of the total 20 years ago,” Silver said.

His theory holds that compromise has declined because members of Congress are mostly in “hyperpartisan districts” where even the appearance of compromise upsets voters and opens candidates up to primary challengers.

It’s a good read. The only flaw in the theory is that picking any two presidential election years gives the theory a weak foundation. Ross Perot kind of jumped in the middle of the 1992 campaign between incumbent President George H.W. Bush and Democrat William Jefferson Clinton. There was no predominant third-party candidate in 2012.