Republican Party

One GOP Vote?

By Jay Newton-Small | @JNSmall | November 7, 2009 | +

After House GOP Whip Eric Cantor promised the Tea Partiers unified Republican opposition on Thursday, I assumed there wouldn’t be any defections. After all, he succeeded in whipping total opposition to the stimulus and the budget. Word has it, though, that Republicans are worried about Rep. Joe Cao, a Louisiana Republican who took William “$90,000 in the freezer” Jeffferson’s seat. Cao is a former Jesuit priest who votes in line with the Catholic Bishops. He won his seat in 2008, barely edging out Jefferson 50% to 47% despite the fact that Jefferson was under indictment at the time. President Obama won the district last year with 75% of the vote. Rumor has it that Rahm Emanuel and Nancy Ann DeParle have been leaning on Cao to follow the bishops and vote for the bill if the Stupak amendment passes.

Update:
Eric Cantor’s office quibbles with the idea that he “promised the Tea Partiers unified Republican opposition.” The actual quote: ”Your efforts to stop this bill are being heard loud and clear and I will guarantee you that we are committed to making sure that not one Republican will vote for this bill.”

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Related Topics: eric cantor, health care reform, joe cao, republican defection, Congress, Health Care, Republican Party

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  • hellslittlestangel

    Any chance this will make doofuses like David Broder shut up about bi-partsanship?
    .
    No, I didn’t think so.

  • lupercal5

    one republican vote will be a huge victory for dems and a crushing defeat for repubs. *spinmeister*

  • stuartzechman

    Top two trending topics on twitter right now are #hcr and #Rihannasforehead

  • deconstructiva

    Jay, if William Jefferson had hidden his money in the washing machine could he have laundered it enough to cover his tracks? So Joe Cao is now the new Scozzafava – next backbreaker of the GOP? Are R’s wearing purity rings on the House floor today?

  • lupercal5

    healthcare just passed. 1 repub voting for reform. Final count: 220-215.

  • pafro

    I hope the bipartisan fetishists like Broder are condemned to an eternity of hearing that sniveling little creep Tom Price whining “I object, I object” over and over and over again.

  • conversets

    In your FACE, Can-Tor!!!1!!

  • hellslittlestangel

    And it was indeed Cao. Guess the teabaggers will be mailing the poor guy teabags or gumbo powder or lemongrass or little plastic cows or some other damned dumb thing.

  • http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/11/08/house-passes-health-care-reform/ House Passes Health Care Reform – Swampland – TIME.com

    [...] $1.2 trillion health care reform legislation. The bill garnered the support of just one Republican, Joe Cao of Louisiana; 39 Democrats voted against [...]

  • http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/11/08/who-is-cao/ Cao, a Lone GOP Vote for Health Care Reform – Swampland – TIME.com

    [...] upsetting nine-term incumbent William Jefferson – who was under indictment at the time for taking bribes — in 2008, Cao became the first [...]

  • sacredh

    Cao was the lone GOP yes vote. Have they told him to spell his name Ciao yet?

  • abdullah69

    Well this really tells me something I did not previously know. Never trust a guarantee from a Republican politician.

    When Nixon said “I am not a crook”, I believed him.

    When George Bush said “No new taxes”, I believed him.

    When the dumb George Bush said “Iraq has WMDs”, I believed him.

    Not any more. Those Republican guys just lie.

  • sacredh

    You can trust them. The MSM just reported it wrong.

    Nixon really said “I am not a cook”. True.

    George Bush Sr. really said “No new faxes”. True.

    George Bush Jr. really said “Iraq has PMS”. True.

    Please don’t let erroneous reporting from the press affect your faith in past presidents.

  • sacredh

    Don’t rule out anthrax, pipe bombs or macaroni salad that had been left out in the sun. They don’t like people who refuse to follow marching orders.

  • stewartiii

    NewsBuster: Time’s Newton-Small Focuses On Cao Vote, Glosses Over 15.1% of Dems Defecting On PelosiCare
    http://newsbusters.org/blogs/ken-shepherd/2009/11/09/times-newton-small-focuses-cao-vote-glosses-over-15-1-dems-defecting-p

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