Rep. Cao Faces Potential Recall Petition For Toeing GOP Line And Voting Against The Stimulus
Rep. Cao Faces Potential Recall Petition For Toeing GOP Line And Voting Against The Stimulus
Earlier this month, New Orleans’s new congressman Joseph Cao (R) stated that he would vote for the economic recovery package. “I believe that more likely than not, I will vote for it because the 2nd Congressional District needs a stimulus package,” he said. Even on the day of the vote, Cao was telling reporters that he was “leaning yes.”
In the end, however, Cao succumbed to GOP arm-twisting and voted against the package. The Republican party’s chief deputy whip stood near the freshman lawmaker during the entire vote, and Cao admitted that the leaders had applied some “pressure” on him to vote no, so that they could boast 100 percent opposition from their party.
BayouBuzz.com reports that many of Cao’s constituents are now angry and may launch a recall petition:
Congressman Joseph “Anh”Cao, a Republican, who defeated William “Bill” Jefferson is facing a recall petition because of his vote on the Barack Obama stimulus package. The recall has been initiated by a group of ministers. [...]
One elected official, State Representative Juan A. LaFonta, Democrat of District 96 told Bayoubuzz that he does not know about the existence of the petition but that he would sign it. … “People are starving and Cao needs to represent the people of the district”, LaFonta said.
In an interview with ThinkProgress last month, Cao admitted that part of the reason he was elected was because he separated himself from the national Republican party. “Our message, going into the race, was that this was not a race concerning party,” said Cao. “This was a race for the rebuilding of the Second District. A race to promote ethics, to promote action.” Watch it:
As one of his reasons for opposing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Cao claimed that New Orleans was being shortchanged. He cited the fact that just 4,800 jobs are expected to be created or retained under the bill — a number that is lower than in other Louisiana districts, due to the area’s population loss after Hurricane Katrina.
However, that’s not looking at the whole picture. As the Times-Picayune has reported, “[m]ore than $91 million of the $308 million the state will receive in federal stimulus dollars for roadwork will be spent on two major projects in the New Orleans area.” Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) also inserted a $1.4 billion provision to more quickly settle disputed FEMA disaster claims from the 2005 hurricanes.
Of course, if Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) has his way, Lousiana may not even get all the money that’s been allocated for it.
The Recall Anh Cao Committee faces daunting odds. The effort has 180 days from its filing Monday to gather 100,000 valid signatures from registered voters in the district -- a third of all district voters -- in order to get a recall vote. And even if they succeed at that, and voters approve the recall, it appears that Congress would not accept the result. The Rev. Aubry Wallace of Marrero, who heads the recall committee, said they would face each challenge to their effort in turn but said flatly, "This is going to be a successful effort." He said they have already gathered 8,000 signatures.
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Awesome. It’s about time politicians get immediate feedback from their constituents.
February 19th, 2009 at 12:36 pmGod Bless the Intertubes!!!
February 19th, 2009 at 12:37 pmThe GOP lemmings are dead set on running themselves and the whole economy over the cliff. If President Obama can extract the sane among us and let the delusional run off the cliff the country will be better off.
February 19th, 2009 at 12:39 pmGreat. Potentially 1 down and 176 more to go. Hopefully John Boner will be the minority leader of 1 pretty soon.
February 19th, 2009 at 12:40 pmThe Republican party’s chief deputy whip stood near the freshman lawmaker during the entire vote, and Cao admitted that the leaders had applied some “pressure” on him to vote no, so that they could boast 100 percent opposition from their party.
What is this jackass talking about ?
What “pressure” ? This isn’t friggin’ celluloid , and this ain’t Goodfellas or The Godfather.
What the hell could Cry Baby Boehner or anyone in the fading GOP do to him legitimately ?
Just another typical Republican , who puts party before country or its citizens …………
February 19th, 2009 at 12:40 pmstephanie miller read a story this morning about these pugs who voted against… as i recall, the gist was that the states’ legislatures have the final say, and the federal pugs knew that so they were safe to vote no, knowing their states could and would take the money…
February 19th, 2009 at 12:46 pm“The wages of sin are death.” Cao committed the sin of Party Before Constituancy and his wages will be the death of his political career. There’s a lesson to be learned from this, Bobby J!
February 19th, 2009 at 12:46 pma recall could have a domino
effect that would shake the
gop right down to it’s very core.
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this bares watching.
:)
February 19th, 2009 at 12:47 pmI love it!! Send him packing, Louisianites. Prove to the delusional senior Reichpublicans in congress, that they DON’T have the final word. THE PEOPLE DO!
February 19th, 2009 at 12:48 pmHow can this be?? He towed the party line and everything like that. Why on earth would his constituents be pissed at him?? He’s a Republican for Gawds sake. Were they looking for a miracle, or what?
February 19th, 2009 at 12:48 pmthe bears are watching..
February 19th, 2009 at 12:49 pmIt’s called a state law, junior.
February 19th, 2009 at 12:50 pmI think the politicos are running out of places to hide. The time where they could lie and cheat without anyone noticing is over. It is appropriate to remove your congressperson if they do not support the will of their bosses (the voters). All the shiny suited congresscritters work for us. We don’t work for them. That is quite the opposite from the GOP, where it seems you need to be able to turn your back on your bosses, while getting a pat of the back from the GOP leadership. “Good little robot”. If the legislators can’t represent us, then throw them out.
February 19th, 2009 at 12:52 pmNevar Says:
the bears are watching..
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lol,
i knew i picked the wrong “bear”.
:)
February 19th, 2009 at 12:55 pmnothing wrong with a little bare watching…
February 19th, 2009 at 12:56 pmi kinda feel sorry for this guy having to cave in to the gop’s strong arm tactics. having the party’s chief deputy whip standing near him during the entire vote?!?! what the frack is that all about? i’d like to see ad campaigns with that picture over words like freedom of expression, liberty, conscience before party. strike that…just label the picture the new gop: party before country. what’s next-holding family members hostage?
February 19th, 2009 at 12:59 pmLet`s hope this happens throughtout the whole country……if we could be so lucky.
February 19th, 2009 at 1:00 pmjoe cantwell Says:
Nevar Says:
the bears are watching..
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lol,
i knew i picked the wrong “bear”.
That’s an expression I reserve for speaking aloud. If I have to write it, I look at it, change it back and forth and finally choose a different expression.
At least you didn’t say anything about “towing the line” — that one makes me scream.
February 19th, 2009 at 1:01 pmyou know what, The Republicans need to be voted out of office period. They have torn the country into shreds. Anyone who wants to put conservatives in office making it a good deal for the common man, They need to be reamed out with a cucumber, along with the Dems. We need Independents in office to bring the states back to the full function. We need to pull out of globalism and back to nationalism. We need to QUIT calling people markets. because I am not a market. a market is a store where you buy goods. I am not a store, I am a human being. That market this market. what the hell, Americans, get your head out of the gutter, Look at realization. Our economy is suffering because of our politicians and corporations. You know that we the people have the power to pull the plug on Wall Street. I am glad I am hated. The more hated I am, the more peaceful I am. We need to send foreigners back to where they came from. This includes the pricks from Germany so called CIA’s, We need to dissolve the agency, they bring drugs and encourage prostitution along with illegal activities. We need to boot the illegals who do not how to Habla Ingles, back to their own countries and confiscate the cash earned and put it back into the pool for the public assistance. Look at Nadya, She need to go back to flipping pizzas to care for her kids. I am not threatening her, It makes me angry to pay taxes to support her 14 kids. I would not even want to be with her. She is getting close to nice cozy 1.0 million dollars a year and not have to spend a DIME on health care. Law enforcement, reconsider before trying to prosecute me on my free speech. I am speaking the truth. Law enforcement works daily and gets paychecks. they pay taxes, plus they are brainwashed into prosecuting innocent people who speak out against stupidity. Lets organize a coup ‘d tat against the banking industry. Bring USA back to its greatness.
February 19th, 2009 at 1:03 pmI said it before and I’ll say it again, Cao will be a one term Congressman. If the recall doesn’t work, then he will be voted out of office next year. The only reason that he won was because he ran against “freezer man” Jefferson.
February 19th, 2009 at 1:42 pmOh, and if they can get enough signatures for the recall vote and if Jindal doesn’t accept the stimulus money, Jindal may be looking at a “recall”, too.
February 19th, 2009 at 1:42 pmYou know your party is in trouble when the effort to recall a just elected GOOPer is being headed by a minister. Wasn’t God supposed to be on the side of the GOOP?
I hope these fine citizens succeed if for no other reason than to scare the Cheney out of the rest of the party.
PEACE
February 19th, 2009 at 1:44 pmWay OT (apologies) but there is a great “connect the dots” over at HuffPo about how the rewarding of the 28 new Marine One helicopters to the Italians may have been payback for the forged yellowcake documents:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-klein-and-paolo-pontoniere/helicopters-cover-ups-and_b_167568.html#postComment
If this turns out to have merit, I can’t think of anything more pressing for AG Holder. The Iraq/WMD connection was the reason for the illegal invasion, if there is truth to this, it is nothing less than high treason.
PEACE
February 19th, 2009 at 1:51 pmHey, if this works for the voters of the 2nd District, LA, then maybe it would work for the voters of the 6th District, PA. Maybe we can finally be rid of Jim Gerlach, the do nothing who voted with Bush 99% of time.
February 19th, 2009 at 1:51 pmEven if the recall doesn’t succeed, I think this group will be able to raise enough hell to ensure that Mr. Cao will not be returning to Congress after the 2010 midterms. which is as it should be for having shown no integrity or backbone.
February 19th, 2009 at 1:52 pmWhy would Congress not accept the recall if it is successful?
February 19th, 2009 at 1:55 pmBear Country says:
I think the only time Congress (in this case, the House) accepts a result like a recall is in the case of Gross Malfesance (sp?), proven crimminality or corruption.
February 19th, 2009 at 2:09 pmSparks! That’s a healthy way to express anger of GOP bulls*it.
February 19th, 2009 at 2:25 pmthis must be what stephanie was talking about – found at C&L:
And Digby finds this nugget about the psycho right wing Govenors that may want to refuse some of the money. Stupidly, Clyburn , inserted a clause in the bill that says legislator’s can override the Governor and accept the money. I know he was just looking out for the people in the states where Republicans are more interested in playing politics than helping their constituents.
http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/republicans-taut-stimulus-plan-after-th
February 19th, 2009 at 2:35 pmPerhaps you could post the contact information on the Recall effort. I am sure some readers would like to donate to the effort.
February 19th, 2009 at 3:39 pmspencers mom Says:
Way OT (apologies) but there is a great “connect the dots” over at HuffPo about how the rewarding of the 28 new Marine One helicopters to the Italians may have been payback for the forged yellowcake documents:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ jeffrey-klein-and-paolo-pontoniere/ helicopters-cover-ups-and_b_167568.html#postComment
If this turns out to have merit, I can’t think of anything more pressing for AG Holder. The Iraq/WMD connection was the reason for the illegal invasion, if there is truth to this, it is nothing less than high treason.
PEACE
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good one spence!
it bears repeating.
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February 19th, 2009 at 4:15 pmThey need to do a recall for Jindal too with his silly self!
February 19th, 2009 at 4:24 pmWhen will people ever learn to stop voting Republican? That was rhetorical–don’t answer.
February 19th, 2009 at 5:26 pmHahahahahahahahah. Ahahahahahahahah. Ahahahahahaha. Hey Republicans! Can you hear me now?
February 19th, 2009 at 6:54 pmYou people ( liberal democraps ) are crazy. Congressman Cao is doing a great job representing the people that voted him in. This non-stimulus bill is a joke, it won’t do any good,and for the record the 2nd district will get the least amount of money in the country. Where were these so called ministers last week when the young black girl threw her live baby in the lake?!?!?!?! Can any one answer that?
February 19th, 2009 at 8:06 pmtdawghatesliberals Says:
YOU people (conservative Republicans) are stupid. I mean astonishingly ignorant morons. Bereft of any capability of higher brain function so your baseless assertions about what WILL happen are useless. I mean you are VERY stupid after all and we would have to be almost as stupid as you to take any more of your predictions seriously after the last 8 years of showing just how little you know about what you are talking about. Iraq alone shows you couldnt predict where the Sun will come up. MORON
February 20th, 2009 at 4:48 pmDebs,
February 20th, 2009 at 10:11 pmActually, conservative independent, I like to think of myself as a free thinker. I did not say what I thought would happen, just facts that this bill will benefit the 2nd district the least out of all districts. You can check that fact yourself, and you did not have any thing to say about those great men of God that started this recall. Oh wait, you probably don’t want to talk about that because only stupid people believe in God, am I right?
By the way, what I think is that President Obama and his democrat henchmen will try to turn us into a country of welfare junkies unable to provide for our own families, so will we need our great government to save us. Which, is a bunch of crap, if you don’t work for it, you don’t deserve it.