Blogs and Stories
The Only Republican to Vote for Health Care
Sipa
Joseph Cao was hailed six months ago as the future of the GOP. Yesterday, he was the only Republican to vote for the Democrats' health-care plan. How the most endangered Republican in the House is making a bid to survive. By Benjamin Sarlin.
This article was originally published on Sept. 16.
As he made his way to the podium to give his health-care speech last Wednesday—a speech that would draw boos from Republican lawmakers, trigger Joe Wilson’s now-notorious outburst, and eventually be likened to Nazism by angry protesters—President Obama was able to find at least one friendly Republican face in the crowd. “I love this guy!” Obama announced to Republicans gathered nearby as he shook hands with Rep. Joseph Cao (R-LA).
The president had plenty of reasons to praise the freshman representative from New Orleans. On issues large and small, Cao has been among the most White House-friendly Republican politicians in the country. There is a very real possibility that he will be the only member of his party to jump ship and support the president’s health-care plan.
“We have to be approachable to the average American family,” GOP Rep. Joseph Cao says of the Republican Party. “Unfortunately, I don’t believe our message has been that. It’s been somewhat anti-immigrant, it’s been oftentimes too pro-business and anti-family.”
Will he cop to being Obama’s favorite Republican? “I'm looking for real solutions to America's problems and my politics has never been partisan,” Cao said. In other words, he’s not running from the label.
Cao’s willingness to play ball with the White House has a lot to do with his status as the most vulnerable incumbent of any party in 2010.
Cao won his seat in December 2008 in a majority African-American district that had not elected a Republican since 1890—thanks to a serious scandal. The incumbent he defeated, William Jefferson, had been indicted for a litany of corruption charges, leading many Democrats to either stay home or cross party lines in protest. In addition, the decisive vote was not held on the same day as the presidential election—meaning Obama wasn’t the ticket to boost turnout.
House Minority Leader John Boehner distributed a memo entitled "The Future is Cao" while Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell touted Cao's election in a January speech as a sign that "a revival is already taking place" for the party.
Cao, for his part, seems to at least agree that the party is in need of a new look.
“I would hope that...if the future truly is Cao, then we have to be approachable to minorities,” he said. “We have to be approachable to the average American family. We have to be approachable to the average American. Unfortunately, I don't believe our message has been that. It's been somewhat anti-immigrant, it's been oftentimes too pro-business and anti-family.”
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
The Right Dumps Carrie
Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
Geithner's Stock Plummeting
Jeff Madrick is a contributor to the New York Review of Books and a former economics columnist for the New York Times. He is editor of Challenge Magazine, visiting professor of humanities at Cooper Union, and senior fellow at the New School's Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis. He is the author of Taking America, The End of Affluence (Random House) and The Case for Big Government.
Sarah Palin, Creationist?
Benjamin Sarlin is a reporter for The Daily Beast. He previously covered New York City politics for The New York Sun and has worked for talkingpointsmemo.com.
10 Palin Hits the Leakers Missed
Benjamin Sarlin is a reporter for The Daily Beast. He previously covered New York City politics for The New York Sun and has worked for talkingpointsmemo.com.
Samuel P. Jacobs is a staff reporter at The Daily Beast. He has also written for The Boston Globe, The New York Observer, and The New Republic Online.
The Man Who Beat Glenn Beck
Benjamin Sarlin is a reporter for The Daily Beast. He previously covered New York City politics for The New York Sun and has worked for talkingpointsmemo.com.
My guess is the cowards will run from that "The future is Cao" statement like a bunch of headless chickens.
My guess is that they would run from anything that would get them reelected, except Money
"I love this guy!" Obama announced to Republicans ...
Kiss of Death. Sadly, Republicans are so knee-jerk that they will despise anything Obama likes.
Yup. Cao's obviously a RINO.
Just wondering since you seem to have some stats, how many white voters voted for Obama in Louisiana?
quivera-man: Obama got the following white vote in 2008:
10% - Alabama
11% - Mississippi
14% - Louisiana
23% - Georgia
26% - South Carolina & Texas
You can find all the numbers at:
http://www.pollster.com/blogs/white_vote_for_obama_in_the_st.php
In other words, he's not foaming-at-the-mouth crazy. Got it.
I've seen him interviewed on MSNBC. He's a true Lincoln Republican, far from what we expect to see via the Joe Wilsons and Chuck Grassleys out there.
Intelligent, reasonable, thoughtfull.
He's doomed.
Bad money drives out good money.
It's simple economic (political) theory. the gNOp eats decency.
"It's been somewhat anti-immigrant"
Get it right. Anti-ILLEGAL.
If you're not interested in upholding the Constitution,
you don't belong in Congress.
sophia5; Representative Cao has it exactly right. The GOP IS anti-immigrant, unless you happen to be coming from western Europe. don't know wher you've been, but you need to do some reading and research then rejoin the real world.
sophia5: There are lots of legal things that are immoral.
This is why lobbyists give out the big bucks.
lol, though I suppose it shouldn't be funny
The problem is the conservatives have been blurring the line between legal and illegal immigrants. They want to assume that anyone who looks vaguely Hispanic is an illegal immigrant until proven otherwise.
It hasn't been 'conservatives' that've been blurring the lines, it's been the media and the ethno-centric special interest groups that've been doing that. Groups like La Raza and MeCHa are who conflate opposition to illegal immigration with racism and xenophobia. Media types that just can't seem to differentiate between ID stealing illegal aliens and decent, law-abiding immigrants.
For some reason you never see the Asian Immigrant Rights groups defending illegal immigration. You don't hear about African Immigrant Rights groups demanding that THEIR people who break the law should get special treatment. You don't get the Arab rights, Indian Rights, etc etc groups asserting that the illegal immigrants from their ethnicity or race be held to a lesser standard that others. Only the hispanic lobby does this, with the uncritical collusion of a lazy media.
All of us anti-illegal immigration folks are well aware that illegals come in every race and nationality...even IF the vast, VAST majority are hispanic.
BTW, I'm a card-carrying Democrat from a racially diverse family, including two in-laws who are LEGAL immigrants.
Why is it that when teabaggers don't know or understand the nuances or economics of policy, they fall back on ranting that the Constitution is being violated?
Is that a standing order from Commanders Beck and Limbaugh to the teabagger army? When engaging in debate, just repeat whatever you hear on Fox News or the Limbaugh show ... but if you don't know what else to say or how to respond to facts, just turn red and scream that the Constitution is being violated?
Cao knows what's up -- which makes it all the more surprising that he hasn't switched parties yet.
They love to wave the Constitution. The problem with that is that while they're waving it, they can't read it.
@sophia5
"It's been somewhat anti-immigrant"
He is right. Republicans want to reduce legal immigration. That's being anti-immigrant. They are against issuing visas under the premise of protecting American jobs. Whether that argument has any validity is up for debate, but it is a clear anti-immigrant position.
The Constitution has nothing to do with it. The sub-conscious Birther in you made you write that last bit. I believe the logic is, Obama is an immigrant, Obama likes Cao, Obama isn't a legitimate president, therefore Cao hates America. Is that about right?
It's one thing to write sensible immigration laws. It's quite another to vilify a race, but that's what Republicans do - 24/7. And Hispanic children are being forced to hear this crap, which is traumatic to say the least.
Any person of color today who considers voting for a Republican is in serious need of a psychiatrist. Any white person who does so needs to see an exorcist.
Dolmance: In 2008, Obama won blacks by 91 points, Hispanics by 36 points, and Asians by 27 points. No real need for psychiatrists here.
Obama got the following white vote :
10% - Alabama
11% - Mississippi
14% - Louisiana
I hope the South is well supplied with exorcists!
Is it 'vilification' if it's true? Is it vilification to point out that 80% of illegal aliens are hispanic? Is it vilification to point out that the major consumer of stolen identitifications and forged documents are illegal aliens, of which 80% are hispanic? Is it vilification to point out that illegal aliens are serial law-breakers whose infractions include bank and credit fraud, identity fraud, document fraud and employment fraud...and that 80% of all illegal immigrants are hispanic?
again...is it 'vilification' if it's TRUE?
'anti-immigrant' implies bias or malice against the actual IMMIGRANT. Most people have nothing against immigrants so can't honestly be labled 'anti-immigrant'.
Now, some are anti-IMMIGRATION, meaning they're opposed to allowing folks from other nations to move here and become citizens, (mostly because economics, not xenophobia) . They have no bias toward the actual IMMIGRANT, even if the policies they support are detrimental to said foreign national.
Many, many MORE are anti-ILLEGAL immigration which is neither anti-immigrant nor anti-immigration.
Nice knowing you Cao. The repugs eat their own!!
The Republicans have no future at all without Representatives like this one, and evidently they don't care. They seem to have gone all out to appeal to white Confederate and evangelical voters, which some analysts believe are going to be most fired up to vote in 2010.
Long term, this is a losing strategy for the republican party.
say, weren't they all "Fired Up" in '06? Oh, and how 'bout them waxin' all bold - confident in the notion that when it all came down to it, when "folks" got in there voting boothes they would come to the more "natural" conclusion? What about that???
Let's hope so.
I'm so sick and tired of conservatives acting like the constitution is the bible. It is made by men who owned slaves and who considered women incapable of owning property. They weren't given this country by God with rules to run it. They conquered the land by killing the people already living in it. The drafters of the constitution were flawed. The constitution itself was flawed. So, stop crying constitution every time you can't make a good enough argument.
So apparantly there shouldn't be any rules (i.e. the Constitution) because the framers were imperfect and flawed human beings as judged by Anton through his lens of early 21st century standards. I guess we should all just simply "make good enough arguments" as the basis for our rules and laws of this country. Sounds like a winner Anton!
Grimmace: Apparently George W. Bush and Dick Cheney don't believe that there should be any rules (including the Constitution). Remember them lying us into war, torturing, and illegally spying on all Americans?
This seems to be the way conservatives do things these days. I guess you missed this Fox News talking point.
I'm sick of conservatives acting like the bible is the constitution.
The longer Cao spends in Washington -- on what will be a very short stay in office for him -- the more he must realize that Boehner, Cantor and all of his GOP "pals" love him so long as they can exploit him and use him for cover. The "future is Cao?" Please. Come Jan. 2011, they won't even remember his face at the Capitol Hill Club.
Gee, a Republican who doesn't lie every time he opens his mouth. He'll be crushed.
An authentic Republican, in the Lincoln mold instead of this right-wing-fundamentalist-extremism crap, is a good and decent thing.
Too bad Cao doesn't have a chance.
I hate to agree though you're probably right - an Asian Republican in an African-American district! - can't get more unique than that. I can't see him doing an Arlen Specter (though I wouldnt mind seeing him). He's doing a balancing act but it takes only a single solid Democrat to challenge him and he's gone - and so goes another moderate republican, whose few numbers dwindle to what can be counted on one hand. We need more republicans like him (though this statement would be cannon-fodder for right wing extremists)
Cao doesn't have a chance not because of anything that the Republicans will do to him, but rather the simple fact that the only reason he won was because of a scandal. This is a black and Democratic seat plain and simple. It took an extraordinary circumstance for the preceding sentence not to hold true during the last election.
Cao holding his seat -- or more appropriately not holding his seat -- has nothing to do with Republicans.
Grimmace: I have to agree with you here - however reluctantly.
an authentic republican? Really? Do you have ANY idea what a republican is?
By your post, you haven't a clue.
By voting for something that is unconstitutional is more like what a democrat does all the time.
If he wants to join a socialist agenda, that's fine, but don't expect the GOP to sit back and let them take over our republic.
Seriously, why do we care? Isn't this man's experience proof that his political party has really become the party of "NO!"? Bipartisanship can only work if BOTH parties have centrist members, and I don't know that the Republicans have (m)any left in either house of Congress.
Stop trying to promote it as the solution to anything, please.
Cao is my Congressman and I've been watching him closely. I've grown to really like and trust him. He has shown that leadership is not "following the crowd." It's taking the lead, as it implies. He might be the only real "leader" in the GOP ... He's civil and genuinely moral (as opposed to the "fake" moral GOP crap). ... And all this coming from me, a serious Progressive.
LeighBeast: If he's that good, maybe we can get him to switch parties.
You may be missing the point - he's the kind of leader that the GOP needs, and the country needs, because until proven otherwise we are a two party system. He won in a heavily Democrat district and is probably winning over a lot of his constituents by representing their interests - go figure! He's still conservative but not participating in the out-dated cultural war. If the Repubs are lucky, he is the future of their party, because otherwise they have no future, which puts the country's future in question. If there were more like him I think we'd all be better off. This is coming from a Ragin Cajun who voted with the proud 14 percent, BTW.
Yeah, he, like Pelosi, Reid and most dems, he doesn't bother to notice that he just gave the federal government powers that it doesn't have.
Kudos to the idiot.
Switch parties, you mean the party that ignores the laws of this country?
It's like when Pelosi was asked by a reporter where IN the U.S. Constitution does it give them the power to do this!!
I know!]
NO WHERE!!!!!!
Cao isn't going to last. Like Connie Morella, Nancy Johnson, Chris Shays, he'll go the way of all liberal to moderate Republicans.
Bravo! Now here's a man of steel and courage! Don't underestimate Cao. Unless you are a real fighter, you have no idea what he will be capable of doing.
No, more like uneducated as to what the consitution says.
More like stupidity really.
It seems counter-intuitive that the republicans are looking for some love from Obama too. They are fixated on him in ways that are beyond anything I've every seen. When you see them rushing to be on the sidelines to get near enough to get a handshake or a glance in their direction or grinning whenever he mentions their name, You have to wonder. I mean Obama is probably a bon-a-fide genius and most of these republican brutes are like the emperor without clothes - they are afraid of exposure and yet they can't seem to help putting their inadequacies on display. There's a great novel in there!
Genius? Genius?.......Really?
Where are his grades?
He can't make a single speech without a teleprompter or if he goes off of it, he makes more "Uh's" and "Um's' than anyone I know.
If he's so darn smart, then why aren't any of his law papers, briefs, thesis, etc. published for all to slobber over?
Didn't he tell us last year that we had 57 states?
You are right though, ONE must WONDER how we got stuck with an idiot like OBAMA.
This guy's the real deal. If the Republicans don't support him, the Democrats will. I wish him well.
Well, if he joins the democrats, that's a point in the column for stupidity.
Also, a point in the column for not knowing the U.S. Constitution
How can you or anyone support someone who votes for the federal government to take powers that isn't given to them?
Its a fairly simple concept, a guest, knocks on your door and is invited in, a lawbreaker breaks in through the basement window.
Its not really that tough to comprehend. Conservatives are not anti-immigrant they are anti-lawbreaker.
sold his vote to Obama cause Obama gave him a promise to work with him on La debt. He is proud he got a "commitment" from Obama. That should be worth about a nickel! RINO! this guy now represents the district of the guy with the money in his congressional office freezer! He's one of yours!
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
Oh, lord. We have only one person in the GOP in the House who doesn't know the Constitution. What he just voted for was just absolutely wrong.
He voted for the Federal Government to usurp powers NOT given to it.
How in the WORLD could he be so uneducated?
I mean, most democrats are and we already know that. And there is hope that some democrats knew that it was unconstitutional and didn't vote for it.
Thomas Jefferson is turning over in his grave right now as to what the House did last night.
Pretty pathetic.
Nancy Pelosi has made it fairly easy for her to be the WORST Speaker of the HOUSE EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
...and exactly WHICH article or Amendment in the Constitution was violated?
The one about the citizenry facilitating the unethical power of greedy little businessmen---in oppositition to their own best interests?
Thank you.
As a first time user, your comment has been submitted for review. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or two for your comment to be reviewed, depending on the time of week and the volume of comments we receive.
Please log in to leave comments.