La. Republican Cao open to torture hearings, prosecution

[BurtWorm]

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/04/24/cao-torture/



Yesterday, the Times-Picayune reported that Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao (LA) is one of the few Republicans in Congress who have agreed that the door to possible prosecutions for torture architects in the Bush administration should be left open:

But on Monday, Obama, while maintaining that CIA operatives should be spared legal scrutiny, said: "With respect to those who formulated those legal decisions, I would say that that is going to be more of a decision for the attorney general, within the perimeters of various laws."

Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao, R-New Orleans, whose father, a former South Vietnamese Army officer who spent seven years in a North Vietnamese re-education camp after the fall of South Vietnam, expressed a similar view.

"I agree we have to look to the future, not the past, but if people broke the law, I believe that no one is above the law and if people violate the law they have to face the consequences of what the law dictates."

Friday, April 24, 2009 10:45
Amanda Terkel

[babylonsister]

1. Egads! The rethugs haven't gotten to him yet. He'd best hide!

:scared:

[BurtWorm]

2. I suspect he is literally a RINO

A Republican of convenience. Quite possibly a good American, in other words.

:patriot:

[babylonsister]

3. I recalled this when forming my response to your OP, but

hope you're right!


http://thinkprogress.org/2009/02/14/cao-gop-pressure/

Rep. Cao Succumbs To GOP Arm-Twisting


Earlier this week, New Orleans' freshman 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."

When the vote occurred yesterday, Cao voted no, succumbing to the GOP's pressure tactics. Politico reports:

Beforehand, Cao acknowledged that Republican leaders had put “pressure” on him to oppose the package, and the party’s chief deputy whip, California Rep. Kevin O. McCarthy, stood near Cao during the entire vote.

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), the Republican whip, "said he had talked to Cao regularly, including the last 24 hours." Cao emphasized that the leadership did not apply "extreme pressure," however.

After flip-flopping, Cao couldn't get his story straight. He claimed, "Personally I was always against the bill." He also told the Times-Picayune that the Obama administration made little effort to court his vote, but he told The Hill, “There was a White House representative who came over to my office , specifically assigned to me.”

Norman Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said Cao's hopes for winning a second term depended on "people in the district identifying him as a thoroughly independent person who is not in the thrall of the Republican leadership. Now anyone running against him can say, 'He's a Republican mouthpiece.'

[BurtWorm]

4. Disgusting fascists.

:puke:

[SteppingRazor]

5. I think he'd like to be re-elected.

He's in pretty much the same seat as the Democrat who took over Tom DeLay's district. That Democrat, Nick Lampson, lasted just one term in a heavily Republican district before he was ousted in favor of Republican Pete Olsen.

Cao is in almost exactly the same boat. He came to power because of a massively corrupt Democratic incumbent, and he now represents a deeply Democratic district as a Republican.

[BurtWorm]

6. Excellent analysis.

:patriot: