Joseph Cao has a long career ahead of him

[The Duke]

On the one hand, he voted the right wat on stimulus and cap'n'trade.  Two out of three of the big votes right ain't bad from a deep blue district.  And he only voted for health care after there were already 218 so he'd be sure not to affect the outcome.  Besides, he didn't really care if the bill passed the House because that's how sure he is that it will never pass the Senate.

On the other hand, despite voting for this turkey of a health bill he's still gonna get creamed in a year.  He got one shot and only one shot to be a United States Congressman and he could have cashed that one term into a shot at a Senate seat or a Governorship.  Instead, he begs for mercy and gets none.  I guarantee none of the Democrats now praising him will shed a tear when he loses his seat.  They only like him when they can use him, they're not his friends.  He forgot who his friends were.

At the end of the day, he's a better Congressman than his predecessor was or his successor will be.  But he is not as good a Congressman as he could have been.

[The Duke]

What if he just voted how he thought was best?

Are Congressman allowed to do that?

[The Duke]

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.