AP – FILE - In this Saturday, Dec. 6, 2008 file photo, Anh 'Joseph' Cao smiles during an interview at a victory … Once a year, Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao gives the Washington establishment a little jolt.
In December 2008, the nationally unknown Vietnamese community activist captured a seat for Republicans in majority-black New Orleans, becoming an instant — albeit short-lived — celebrity for the GOP.
On Saturday night, he handed Democrats their only Republican vote on the centerpiece of their domestic agenda, a massive overhaul of the nation's health care system that promises to enhance coverage for tens of millions of Americans and thousands of Cao's constituents. Now he's a bit of a cult hero on the left — a profile in courage, Democrats say — and television bookers were scrambling to find cell phone numbers for his aides Sunday.
Republicans and Democrats who have worked closely with Cao in Louisiana and Washington say they weren't a bit surprised — even if much of the political world did a double take — when Cao registered a green light on the scoreboard in the House chamber.
"I think he works hard. I think he studies things, and I think he tries to do the right thing," said an administration official who has worked with Cao. "People in the administration reach out to him a lot because he's willing to talk about things nondogmatically."
Of course, Cao and the Obama administration have a major shared interest in the rebuilding of New Orleans, which puts him in regular contact with the Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Homeland Security and Education.
On health care, Cao met with the White House point person, Nancy-Ann DeParle, in his office and spoke to her repeatedly by phone during the past couple of months, according to an aide. President Barack Obama called him Saturday, giving Cao an opportunity to press the president to help with hospital development and forgiveness for disaster loans in New Orleans.
All along, Cao was looking for reasons to support the bill, according to spokeswoman Princella Smith. But there was one seemingly insurmountable obstacle among a series of reservations: The former Jesuit seminarian was dead-set against voting for it if it expanded abortion rights in a new health care exchange.
He met with members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and called Democrats to help secure their votes for the Stupak-Pitts amendment sharply limiting the use of federal dollars for subsidizing abortions, according to Smith.
"When the Stupak amendment passed, his decision to go for it was made," she said.
There was a bit of visual drama on the House floor Saturday night, with Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) cozying up to Cao to try to keep a unified Republican line against the bill. Cao, in a move courteous to GOP leaders who wanted to force as many Democrats as possible to cast "yes" votes — and preserving his options — waited until the other side had posted the 218 votes necessary for passage before casting his yea.
Perhaps because few believed that a Republican with little money and no national party support could ever win in New Orleans, most of Washington's political class was surprised when Cao arrived in Washington — and many wrote him off early as a one-term wonder.
But there may be a certain freedom in the possibility that, as a Republican in New Orleans, his political career is living on borrowed time.
"This is 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.' He'll tell you, 'I don't know whether I'm going to be here in two years, so I'm going to do everything I can for my district.' That's all I've seen," said Paul Rainwater, executive director of the Louisiana Recovery Authority in Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration.
Rainwater, who is a former senior aide to Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu, said Cao hit the ground running when he was first elected, asking for briefings on local issues and the matrix of agencies involved in Gulf Coast recovery.
"I've been impressed with the way he attacks an issue," Rainwater said. "You can't help but like him. You can't help but like his energy, and you can't help but like his honesty."
Cao's take?
"I've always been focusing on making the right decisions for the people of my district, whether or not it will cost me my political future," he told CNN on Sunday.
Though Cao and his aides insist he will remain a Republican, he at times seems closer to Democrats — friends like California Rep. Mike Honda, administration officials who work closely with him and a bipartisan staff — than to his colleagues in the GOP.
There's no guarantee that his vote for the health care bill will make him popular enough with Democrats in New Orleans to win next November and give a third jolt to the political establishment, but it's made him a few Democratic friends in Washington for the moment.
"This was, as you observed, a bipartisan vote," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said at a postvote news conference.
Correction: An earlier version of this story said that Cao was elected in November 2008. In fact, he was elected in December 2008.
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