PrintNovember 8, 2009
Why Cao voted for Pelosi's healthcare bill
Cao has zero chance to be re-elected. He is the single most vulnerable member of Congress. His district is 60% black. His win was like Flanagan over Rostenkowski in 1994. A onetime thing, due to a special circumstance: your congressman is going to jail.
Expect Cao to be on Dianne Sawyer, Today show, etc. this week to highlight his nobility for being bipartisan. Take away Cao and Bill Owens, and vote is 218-217, and that only happened due to abortion language. Pelosi would have lost Stupak, Ellsworth, and a maybe half dozen others without that. They did not have the votes until they bought off Stupak. He did not have 40 votes, but he did not need 40 to have leverage.
GOP and conservatives needs to see what happened here: Dems won big majorities in Congress by allowing center-right Democrats to run in GOP leaning districts. Many of them won in two wave years, 2006 and 2008. Now the Party protects them on these votes to the extent possible (42 voted no on cap and trade, 39 on ObamaCare).
They needed more of the moderate Democrats to vote for the bill yesterday due to only 1 Republican voting yes (8 did on cap and trade). The concession on abortion ticked off their feminist base, but it got the bill through. Kick the can down the road. Our side would be saying no concessions to RINOs. The other side is much better at politics, however bad their ideas.
