Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional District is heavily Democratic and has a black majority population. Back in November, it wasn’t so much that people there voted for Cao as they did against the now-convicted “Dollar Bill” Jefferson.
Before the healthcare “reform” issue surfaced, there were already calls among the district’s black Democratic equivalent of the “good ol’ boy” establishment to recall Cao. If Wishy-Washy Joe ends up voting against Obamacare, the recall movement may come back with a vengeance.
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.