Joseph Cao has a long career ahead of him

[minionofmidas]

How can you vote for the destruction of something that does not exist?

[minionofmidas]

Also: Cao isn't even supposed to be New Orleans' Rep, in that his election was a lucky fluke. Wouldn't you rather a Republican who votes with you "20%" of the time for 2 years, or a Democrat who votes with you 0% of the time, forever.

Bill Jefferson was hardly the not-voting-with-Republicans-ever type. I don't know about his last term, but there certainly were times when he was the most right wing member of the Black Congressional Caucus by a mile or two.
He wouldn't have voted against this bill, though. Noone could possibly think that voting against a bill insuring most currently uninsured Americans, almost no matter what the details, would be the wrong thing to do for that district... and I don't mean for their election chances in that district either (though it's hard to tell the two apart).

[minionofmidas]

Right. People without healthcare are going to suffer. Hm-hmm.
Well, I guess Common Ground Health Clinic might suffer from government competition.

[minionofmidas]

Also: Cao isn't even supposed to be New Orleans' Rep, in that his election was a lucky fluke. Wouldn't you rather a Republican who votes with you "20%" of the time for 2 years, or a Democrat who votes with you 0% of the time, forever.

But that's our point, he's only there for two years no matter what.  Why not do the right thing instead of pretending to support Pelosi Care in a vain effort to get re-elected?  He loses either way.

I am fairly certain that he "did the right thing" instead of pretending to oppose any Universal Health Care in a vain effort to run for statewide office.

Of course, it's also possible that he's just stupider than I thought. But remember that Cao never ran on any sort of promise to vote like a Republican. Remember that he ran as a centrist Independent (or, really, as the favorite son candidate of the bit of NOLA in the district) for State Senate a year or so before, in a jungle primary with several Republicans. (He didn't win, obviously.)

[minionofmidas]

Lol.

[minionofmidas]

It's an open primary, in a district where Republicans are outnumbered hilarious to one. Good luck primarying an incumbent - the only reason it's at all possible is that the Dem primary will be the one that attracts all the interest.

[minionofmidas]

Sure, he almost lost in a special election against a guy who was just caught with $90k in cash in his freezer and would have certainly lost to Jefferson in the general election if it had been held on election day...

Lol garden path sentence. At first I thought you were saying he almost lost against a guy who would certainly have lost to Jefferson in the general election. (And I don't think it was "just", though maybe I need to refresh my memory.)

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To an extent. Still a little cryptic. Government-affine business opportunities, that sort of thing? Rent-a-quoter?