As everyone now knows, Nancy Pelosi’s “Death to America’s Health Care Industry” bill was passed by a narrow majority of the House shortly after 11 PM last night. Thirty nine Democrats - Blue Dogs from largely Republican districts - voted against it. Incredibly enough, a single Republican broke ranks and voted in favor of it - AFTER the bill passed with 218 Democrat votes.

Needless to say, the Democrats and their Drive-By lapdog stenographers will remind all of us ad nauseum that the bill passed with “bipartisan support.”

The defector’s name is Anh “Joseph” Cao, a Vietnamese who represents Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional District. He was elected in 2008 in the wake of Democrat William “The cash is in the freezer” Jefferson’s conviction on 11 counts of corruption.

It is interesting to note that he was endorsed by Democrat Helena Moreno, who lost to Jefferson in the Democrat primary runoff election and former District Attorney Harry Connick, Sr., another Democrat. He received the endorsement of the liberal Times-Picayune, although the Gambit Weekly, made no endorsement, citing “devout defender of life”  Cao’s noncommittal statements on embryonic stem-cell research.

He also received the endorsement of Bobby Jindal and several conservative pro-life groups - all of whom I have no doubt are today nursing severely bruised political rectal passages

In spite of the fact that Jefferson was, at best, a tainted candidate and, at worst, crippled politically by the corruption conviction, he managed to garner 46.8% of the votes cast in the election, narrowly edged out by Cao, who won with 49.5%.

A quick review of his Wiki bio informs us that he claims to be a devout Catholic who once attended seminary to become a priest. On his website he made the following statement regarding his vote in favor of PelosiCare:

Of his vote, Cao said:  “Tonight, I voted to keep taxpayer dollars from funding abortion and to deliver access to affordable health care to the people of Louisiana.

Unfortunately, he did no such thing insofar as the PelosiCare bill makes exceptions for cases of rape, incest or “the life of the mother,” the last being the standard catch-all loophole through which women determined to rid themselves of unwanted unborn children can very easily walk through on their way to the abortion clinic.

Was Cao unaware of this? I doubt it. How he can claim his vote was a vote for the unborn is a mystery to me unless it’s intended as a sop - either for his own conscience or for the sake of praise from Catholic clerics.

Cao said:  “I read the versions of the House [health reform] bill.  I listened to the countless stories of Orleans and Jefferson Parish citizens whose health care costs are exploding – if they are able to obtain health care at all.  Louisianans needs real options for primary care, for mental health care, and for expanded health care for seniors and children.

The bill passed the House at a 220-215 vote.

Cao said:  “Today, I obtained a commitment from President Obama that he and I will work together to address the critical health care issues of Louisiana including the FMAP crisis and community disaster loan forgiveness, as well as issues related to Charity and Methodist Hospitals.  And, I call on my constituents to support me as I work with him on these issues.

This man is either an idiot or a calculating hypocrite. I’m inclined to the latter, as a read-through of his own site and a review of his legislative record indicates he is a typical bring-the-bacon-home Congresscritter who is more than happy to pick the pockets of taxpayers in 49 other states in order to bring back goodies for his largely Democrat, welfare-sucking district.

Cao said:  “I have always said that I would put aside partisan wrangling to do the business of the people.  My vote tonight was based on my priority of doing what is best for my constituents.

Oh really? If enacted into law, the PelosiCare bill would ultimately be the worst thing to happen to his constituents. It will drive the nation into a government-controlled nightmare - the British National Health Service write large all across America. It would eventually force God knows how many desperately ill senior citizens to die, insofar as their treatment options would be severely curtailed or even non-existent. How precisely Cao is able to reconcile the grim reality of nationalized health care with his claim to be a devout Catholic is a question I suppose only God can answer - because I certainly cannot.

Religion aside, his support for such a measure in light of his own biography is another mystery: his father was a South Vietnamese soldier captured by the Vietcong who spent years in a re-education camp. His mother and siblings did not flee Vietnam until after his father was released. He has first-hand experience with tyranny and government oppression. Can he not see the path upon which Obama would lead this nation?

Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond, the archbishop of New Orleans, said:  “I am grateful to Congressman Cao for his courage and determination to defend life. I appreciate his work to prevent abortion from being included in health care reform and for protecting conscience rights of health care professionals. I – and, I am sure, many in New Orleans would join me – [I] appreciate Congressman Cao’s commitment to the people of New Orleans.”

Yet another idiot Catholic ecclesiastic opens his pie-hole on matters he has no business or competence discussing. Cao is no more committed to the people of New Orleans than he is to unborn children. Cao is committed to Cao and is obviously on a mission to get re-elected for life - not surprising, seeing as how his current net worth of $195,000 is exceeded by liabilities of around $215,000. I guess he figures that lifetime tenure as a Congressman will improve his fortune.

And his legislative record so far? I’ll let the facts speak for themselves.

A couple of months after assuming office, Cao requested $1.2 billion worth of federal pork for his district, at about the same time he gave Obama an “A” grade for the latter’s first 100 days in office.

It is true that he voted against the Porkulus Bill - because, as he later explained, there was not enough pork in the bill for his district.

Cao was one of only 5 Republicans to vote in favor of HR 2346, ostensibly drafted for the purpose of making  supplemental appropriations for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan but in reality another huge porkfest, thanks to all the earmarks attached to it by the Democrats. Both John Boehner and Eric Cantor pressured Cao to vote against it, but he held his ground - as it turns out, Nancy Pelosi bought off his vote with generous funding for Gulf Coast restoration work and low-income housing: more pork for the parasites he represents.

When the vote came up regarding the Omnibus Spending Bill, Cao was one of only 17 Republicans to support it because, as he later claimed, it would provide important benefits for his district.

Cao was one of only 7 Republican House members who supported the Democrats’ censure of Joe Wilson in the wake of the latter’s impolite but utterly accurate outburst during the Man-Child’s address to a join session of Congress that the President was lying.

On his website he claims to be a strong environmentalist and, at a speech given at Loyola University on April 16 of this year, stated that “I recognize there is an issue of global warming that we have to address.” Interestingly, he voted against the Waxman-Markey Cap & Trade bill, but given the foregoing, I suspect it was because there weren’t any earmarks for pork that he could schlep home his district.

What makes me sick to my stomach is the praise this little weasel received from the Catholic press  - who compared him to St. Thomas More - in the wake of his announcement this past August that he would vote against the pending Democrat health care reform bill if it provided taxpayer funding for abortions. As I pointed out, the bill makes exceptions and therefore really DOES fund abortions at the taxpayer’s expense. That doesn’t stop the Bacon Man from pietistically repeating the words of Jesus Christ, who instructed his followers that it profits a man nothing if he should gain the whole word yet suffer the loss of his soul.

Little Piggy Joe’s too busy grabbing slabs of bacon and basking in the encomiums of clueless Catholic prelates to gaze hard enough or long enough into a mirror to observe that the image it reflects is not St. Thomas More but a cynical, calculating and utterly hypocritical RINO.

Here’s to hoping the Democrats in the worthless wasteland of his parasitical district  unseat him next November and spare the Republican Party the ignominy of having to include the likes of him in their Congressional caucus.

Me hate you long time, Joe. Long time.