Quin Hillyer tells the inspirational story of Joseph Cao, a Vietnamese immigrant who rose up from his youth in re-education camps after the fall of Saigon and lived to survive the decimation of his community in Hurricane Katrina and the flooding of his house in Hurricane Gustav, and is now the Republican challenger to William Jefferson. Cao has an uphill battle; we’ll see if the voters in that District are willing to give honest government a chance or if they’ll stick with the old loyalty to Jefferson.
6 thoughts on “Freezer Burn”
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Based on history I’d say the honest guy has no chance of winning. Murtha calls his constituents racists and ignorant rednecks and yet they reelected him because he brings home the pork. Alcee Hastings impeached as a judge for taking bribes becomes a congressional lifer. Barney Franks has his troubles continually reelected. Charlie Rangel loves taxes but doesn’t pay his – no problem. If Jefferson was a Republican he’d be pushed out or fail to receive support in reelection efforts. As a Dem he has no worry of his target voters being appalled by his conduct.
largebill, reelecting miserable congressmen is a long standing tradition in our country, and it has nothing to do with party. Look what it took to get rid of Stevens and Delay. As I’ve written before, everyone thinks that Congressmen are miserable, except their own.
I still would love to see the day when we vote every one of them out, every single one, and make sure that not one new one is a lawyer.
DeLay went down quickly, and over comparatively trivial charges.
If Ted Stevens was a Democrat, he’d still be in office.
Daryl,
You sold me on the idea of no lawyers in office. Based on that, I assume you voted for the presidential ticket with non-lawyers for Pres. & VP over the two lawyer ticket. Right???
Separately, thanks for picking two examples that make my point for me. Just a little surprised you didn’t also include Foley (who was pushed out over sending stupid emails to an 18 year old that was jerking his chain).
Correct me if I am wrong-1)DeLay was a very effective congress memeber for his side, if you don’t like his poltics thats another thing 2) Almost all the charges against De Lay have been thrown out by various courts. I am not even sure he has been convicted of anything, though i might be wrong 3) The charges were brought by an out of control DA who has in the past brought other baseless charges against Republicans.
I live in the Louisiana 2nd Congressional District. I’ve sent Anh “Joseph” Cao a modest donation. His chances are difficult to assess.
Our Vietnamese citizens in New Orleans are pure gold. What achievers! I remember when I graduated from engineering school at the University of New Orleans in December of 1984, there were more Vietnamese names among the electrical engineering graduates than there were Cajun/French names. Many more. Remember, this is only ten short years after the fall of Saigon. Very impressive.
A Cao victory on December 6th would be splendid indeed!