Is transportation secretary Ray LaHood out to get Toyota?

Safety problems in cars should prompt recalls and effective corrective actions to fix the problems, but doe it seem to anyone else like Ray LaHood is being more vocal than necessary regarding the recent problems Toyota is having? He recently publicly stated that he didn’t think Toyota was responsive enough to his requests. That’s not a good thing, but the recall is under way, and I would assume that the Department of Transportation has the power to force a recall rather than just request one, so why is LaHood publicly calling out Toyota unless it’s just to make political hay for attacking a foreign automaker after all the trouble that the Detroit automakers have been having? And to make the conservatives happy, does LaHood have a conflict of interest in dealing with Toyota since the U.S. government is part owner of G.M. and Chrysler?