Today, Congressman Ahn “Joseph” Cao was the lone Republican to vote in support of the House Democrat’s health care reform legislation. Cao barely captured his seat in a run-off election against William Jefferson, the African-American Democrat incumbent, after the FBI taped Jefferson shaking down a technology company for hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and found $90,000 in bills traceable to the tech company concealed in Jefferson’s home freezer. Cao’s district has a huge Democrat registration advantage, is largely African-American, and voted overwhelmingly for Barrack Obama. Cao’s previous vote against Obama’s stimulus package triggered recall efforts against him.

We would have liked to see every Republican vote against the Health Care reform bill to send a clear message. We imagine House Whip Cantor may have taken time out from making confused and disparaging commentsabout talk radio show talent Rush Limbaugh in order to tell Cao that he could vote in favor of the legislation if it looked like the legislation was going to pass regardless of Republican efforts. We’re not sure, but the thinking may have been that there was no reason to sacrifice Cao in order to provide posterity with the historical gesture of Republican consensus on this issue.

If we were Cao, we would have declined the courtesy. We can’t imagine any Republican wanting to associate their name with a mistake of this kind of historical proportion. The better move would have been for Cao to vote “no” with his conscience and in accordance with the principles that drove him to run as a Republican in the first place. A vote against the health care reform may cost Cao his seat, but it would not cost him his honor. This shouldn’t be a difficult decision for anyone, but to make it easier, there’s not a snowball’s chance that Cao is getting reelected in that district, anyway.

Because we believe Cao understands why the Democratic Health Care Reform legislation is terrible legislation and voted in hopes of winning an almost impossible reelection bid, we believe he is the biggest loser of the day. Progressive Democracts are wrong, but they protected the public option and courted some controversy in their successful efforts to pass this legislation. Republicans who stood in near consensus against the legislation have given mainstream America a reason to elect more of them in 2010. Cao stands almost alone as weak and unprincipled. We hope he fares better in his next career.

Here’s the roll call.

Technorati Tags: ahn cao, ahn joseph cao, health care reform