Posted on 08/14/2009 6:13:20 AM PDT by Ebenezer
This guy needs pushed back the other direction.
AMF!
Now that's just silly. This man doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of being reelected in that majority-black totally dem district anyway no matter what conservative Republicans outside his 99.9998% black democrat district say. He doesn't represent Republican voters.
His win was just a fluke because his crooked Dem predecessor William Jefferson became otherwise detained.
You want him to stand up on a soapbox, pronounce himself King & imperiously announce he's not even going to take into consideration what the people he took an oath to represent want and he's going to vote the way people on FR want him to vote instead?
Seriously?
Now, should he ultimately vote against his consituents wishes to defeat this bill after making the effort to try to reconcile the oath he took with his moral conscience, he could indeed have a legitimate shot at wider office representing a more ideologically diverse electorate where Republicans will indeed have the right to demand a voice in his decision-making. Should that occur, that would be an entirely different story & Republicans would then actually have some standing to hold his feet to the fire.
**Who should regulate health care delivery? What about doctor’s licensing, etc.?
—The states if they choose to.
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They could also be certified by various Medical Bodies - like medical universities, the AMA, and others. That could provide a nationally recognized standard without which you couldn’t practice medicine.
I’m not sure, is there a federal gov. requirement for doctors to be licensed now?
Are you saying that an elected representative should feel free, once his oath is out of the way,to go to Washington and not even pretend to take his consituents’ wishes under consideration? Really? We may disagree with their wishes, but his constituents are Americans & they have just as much a right to representational government as we do, don’t they?
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The Ds and many Rs have been doing that to you and me, for decades...pretending to represent us. What difference is there between ‘pretending’ and just lying to our faces? If this R’s constituents didn’t know that they were voting for a conservative, they should have known. And now, it’s time for him to be who he IS, and then if they don’t like it, which they probably won’t, they can vote him out, which they likely will.
That’s much more honest than have a rep ‘pretend’ (lie) to represent you.
As it stands 57% of the American public is opposed to this monstrosity and only 32% in favor. Do you think Cao will take that into consideration in his effort to be ‘nice’ and respect his consituency (many of which, as someone else pointed out, didn’t even go to the polls to elect him)? I’d be interested to see if they do favor HR3200 in his district. Who knows? Probably.
But that said, I agree with your thoughts, that he can be somewhat diplomatic about this - but needs to vote NO, because it’s an impossibly pathetic bill on its face, regardless of whether his consituents favor it 55 - 45, or something like that. That would be the honest thing to do - he would then be an honest politician (I know, I know...oxymoron.)
Would I like it if our Reps truly represented us and were honest with us? Heck yes, I’d love that. That would be way better than ‘pretending’ to represent us.
Over time, perhaps we can force that change toward just such integrity.
Right now, we need to enforce discipline among the Rs on this and forcefully oppose the Ds because we ARE THE MAJORITY on this issue.
We MUST kill this bill.
Can anyone answer a question for me? Normally policies show exclusions, exceptions, provisions....
Is this bill complete or will obamas czars finish the bills with more detail???
U.S. Rep. Ahn “Joseph” Cao, R-New Orleans, said Thursday that he “leans” toward supporting the House Democrats’ vision of a medical system overhaul.....
Really?.....Well, get read to “lean” your ass right out of a job at election time!
You want him to stand up on a soapbox, pronounce himself King & imperiously announce he’s not even going to take into consideration what the people he took an oath to represent want and he’s going to vote the way people on FR want him to vote instead?
Seriously?
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This is not what people are saying. People have pointed out that Cao, ran as a Republican, and won as a Republican; as a conservative - despite the flukish circumstances. He needs to represent the people that voted him into office, while also listening and taking into account (think about that from the D side, or from the standpoint of integrity) the thoughts and wishes of those that didn’t vote for him.
This does not involve Cao, or any D or R becoming a king. It does involve some level of integrity, honesty and honorable service to country and district, which I wonder if 10% of the Federal office holders still have.
This may be the first time that Cao’s constituents have ever even been arm’s length away from a Republican in their lives...
This could be a GREAT teaching moment for him. But he needs to be fearlessly conservative. Heck, he may win over a good number of people if he did that. People like, nay love, honest politicians...which is why Reagan had Ds voting for him in droves (among other reasons) - I know hard to extrapolate that, but it still is interesting to think about how he accomplished that.
Cao needs to be fearlessly conservative to seize the moment, and he doesn’t appear to be that.
Nathan, this is the guy who beat Wm. Jefferson in New Orleans. Now, are you seriously thinking being FOR the Obama health plan is going against his constituents’ wishes???
Are all of you guys here saying that blue dog democrats shouldn't be required to represent the interests of their conservative constituents? That they should feel free to just vote their party's line without even giving lipservice to the concerns of the people they've taken an oath to represent?
For the record, he voted AGAINST Cap and Trade. He’s doomed in this district no matter what he does and I would be surprised if he actually voted for the health care plan as it stands. We’ll see.
In this instance that is all you can hope for.
Primary his arse.
You can’t recall a member of Congress, no matter how many signatures you gather.
Irrespective of how Cao votes, the Democrat nominee will defeat him handily in 2010 (unless Jefferson wins the RAT nomination from prison, and even then it would be close). And while LA will lose a CD following the 2010 Census and they’ll have to redraw the lines in a major way, the Voting Rights Act will ensure that there’s a black-majority district based in New Orleans (even if it stretches across Lake Pont to heavily black parishes west of New Orleans and black parts of Baton Rouge). Thus, Cao should vote based on his principles, not on what he thinks his overwhelmingly Democrat electorate wants to hear. If Cao votes like a liberal, he will still lose reelection and would kill any chance he has of running statewide some day.
yeah. Cao gets himself elected from THAT district. Now these right-wing Freepers wanna give him political advice.
“Just vote the party line and deal with the consequences on election day.” Real creative.
That is not true and hasn’t been true for at least 25 years. It HAD been the case that candidates could convert campaign funds to personal funds, but that was cleaned up in the early 80s.
Cao needs to be fearlessly conservative to seize the moment, and he doesn’t appear to be that.
I agree with what you've said there wholeheartedly, but in order to be effectively persuasive, he has to appear amenable to persuasion himself. He has to seem deliberative & open to their concerns or else they won't even give themselves the chance to try to believe themselves in what (I'm pretty certain) he'll end up doing.
**Just having an R win (once) is ‘enough?’ I don’t think so.
—In this instance that is all you can hope for.
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So we all think he’s probably going to lose his seat in 2010 anyhow. Why not stand up for Conservatism, and use this as a teaching moment - for those teachable and willing to learn? Way better than pretending.
I agree with what you’ve said there wholeheartedly, but in order to be effectively persuasive, he has to appear amenable to persuasion himself. He has to seem deliberative & open to their concerns or else they won’t even give themselves the chance to try to believe themselves in what (I’m pretty certain) he’ll end up doing.
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Right, so we’ve progressed from our original thought, that we should expect him to pretend. We’ve outlined a more nuanced path, that can allow him to be the Conservative he IS, in a very D district.
I don’t disagree with you that he needs to be very nuanced and clever here. If he does that, he may just stand up for Conservative values, while respecting his constituents wishes for health care reform (it just won’t be government only health care reform).
For instance, we need to trumpet the Whole Foods and other alternate plans from the rooftops!
We need to trumpet the Whole Foods and other alternative plans from the rooftops!!
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