Wednesday, November 3, 2010

I Am A Sad Louisiana Republican - The Defeat of Congressman Cao of New Orleans




It should seem that as a Louisiana Republican I am being a tad too grumpy. I mean it was a great night for the Louisiana GOP so why should I get upset about one loss.

Here is the news with vids of Richmond's victory speech and concession speech. See below:


Richmond Wins 2nd Congressional District
Richmond ousts Cao in 2nd Congressional District
Joseph Cao Delivers Concession Speech
Louisiana's Anh 'Joseph' Cao, First Vietnamese-American in Congress, a Rare GOP Loss

This is not an anti Cedric Richmond post. I understand the dynamics of the race here. He also appears to understand that he is not out of the woods yet. That perhaps a black democrat might run against him in two years and those CAO voters will assume their now traditional role of Kingmaker in deciding what Dem shall get their support. So he made the right moves there.

Thanks to Quin Hillyer, a senior editorial writer at the Washington Times and senior editor of The American Spectator, that was the one National Conservative thats stood up for Cao , Hillyer because he is from Louisiana knew the lay of the land down here.

I cannot say the same for the frustrating Kathryn Jean Lopez of the National Review that said last night on twitter.
a republican loss i'm ok with: cao concedes via web Retweeted by 2 people .

Really ? Lopez seemed irked that Cao said he liked President Obama which was not an unusual thing to say in an African American district. Further I never realized that one could not like or love your political opponents even though you disagree with them.

A common complaint was Cao voted for the Health care bill. Well he actually voted against the health care bill at the end because of Abortion concerns. No kudos for that Lopez? In fact I do wonder while she was interviewed on Vatican radio this morning on the election results she noted that Cao has been replaced by a 100 percent pro abortion person?

Cao also took took stands against the stimulus, and against things such as Cap and Trade. He also was a voice against oppressive regimes and was an ally on other Republican fronts. He also was a important person to the conservative Vietnamese community being the first elected Vietnamese Congressman ever. Oh and yes he a Catholic pro-lifer. It appears though because Cao said he "liked" Obama that was his cardinal sin. Stupidity!

At times Lopez like other conservatives are clueless.

However I am glad to note it appears conservatives and Republicans appeared to stand by Cao on the local level. They were not biting it appears in great numbers for the Independent folks running to Cao's right. They stood by the Congressman whose was a Vietnam war refugee and an American success story.

Cao might have been a "moderate" but he is as good as it gets in NOLA. More than that he fought for the people of his district and brought integrity and honor to the office.

I suspect Cao might go back and doing what he has always done. That is quietly working to help New Orleans better. I hope we see him on the political stage again.

So I am grumpy. It seems that Congressman that is the kinda of guy we learn about in Civics books got defeated. It also appears that for whatever reason he made no inroads with the black community which is depressing too.

Good Luck Congressman Cao in the future.

2 comments:

Jim said...

I thought it would be closer, guess I was fooling myself.
It was a miracle that he was elected in the first place. I don't understand the Conservatives throwing him under the bus, given what the alternative was.

James H said...

Yeah it was stupid by some conservative. I hope to have a blog post up later tonight on what I suspect TOny Perkins secret reason was for his actions