Your brand spanking new Secretary of Transportation fielded questions on CNN yesterday.

Here’s what we learned:

• he won’t say whether he would have joined his party colleagues in voting against the House version of the bill. (So he would have. Awkward…)
• he “made some phone calls [and] talked to some people” trying to win Republican support in the House, but “obviously I wasn’t very persuasive.”
• he aims to drum up GOP votes for the conference version of the bill by, once again, making some phone calls and talking to some people.
• he’s inviting the heads of all the state DOTs to Washington for a powwow this week and is asking them each to bring a couple examples of “shovel ready” projects in their states.
• state DOTs get all the funds–instead of mayors–because they know how to make sure “the money is spent correctly.”
• “there aren’t going to be any boondoggles.”

This viewer’s takeaway: he has a very important job but seems like a guy who’s just keeping the chair warm. If you’re fortified with enough coffee, go ahead and try to give it a watch: