One of the most remarkable story lines to emerge from the debate and vote that led to passage of the health care bill on Saturday night was that of Anh "Joseph" Cao, the freshman Republican from Louisiana who bucked the entire party hierarchy to become the lone GOP vote for the reform.

On the other hand, one of the least remarkable developments is that Cao is already taking heat from the blast furnace on the right for his vote.

Michelle Malkin accused Cao of selling out in exchange for a commitment from President Obama to work on health care for Lousianans and post-Katrina development -- two things the president was already on record supporting. "Can't the GOP do better?" Malkin asks.

"Pretty pathetic," agreed Andy McCarthy at The Corner, the blog of National Review Online. "Evidently, the congressman's about as cheap a date as they come."

So far, this seemed be shaping up as a replay of the upstate New York congressional contest in which tea party conservatives targeted the moderate Republican nominee, Dede Scozzafava, because they wanted a more ideologically palatable conservative from outside the party ranks. You know how that turned out: Scozzafava endorsed the Democrat, Bill Owens, who beat the conservative challenger Doug Hoffman -- the first time in more than a century that New York's 23rd District will be represented by a Democrat.

But there are early indications Cao may not be automatically ostracized.

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PD toolbar!By Sunday afternoon, just hours after the vote, the American Spectator's Quin Hillyer was already exasperated with the pot shots targeting Cao:

"Conservatives need to take a deep breath, relax, and stop bashing Joseph Cao," wrote Hillyer, who is also a senior editorial writer at the Washington Times. Hillyer noted that Cao, the first Vietnamese-American elected to Congress, is a former Jesuit seminarian who takes Catholic social justice teaching seriously and so supports universal health care and the pro-life agenda, and said all along he would support Obama if those two elements coincided, as they did, thanks to the Stupak-Pitts amendment barring abortion funding.

Hillyer also pointed to the political realities Cao faces: He represents a district that is 75 percent Democratic and majority African-American, and in last December's special election he defeated the indicted incumbent, longtime Congressman William Jefferson, by the slim margin of 49.6 percent to Jefferson's 46.8 percent. And that despite the fact that "Dollar Bill" Jefferson, as he is known, was facing trial on corruption charges highlighted by the $90,000 in bribe money the feds found in the freezer of Jefferson's Capitol Hill office fridge. (In August, Jefferson was convicted of 11 of 16 charges and faces a sentence of 20 to 150 years.)

As Cao wrote in explaining his vote:

"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 . . . 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."

Hillyer also noted the obvious -- that Cao "did not hold out for just some ridiculous pork project favored by big-money lobbyists; he instead asked for help with local issues caused by THE GREATEST NATURAL CATASTROPHE THAT EVER HIT THIS NATION. These are not roads to nowhere; they are health issues for a still-recovering population. Agree or disagree with his request, it is not outlandish."

"In short, he did the honorable thing by saying where he stood and sticking with it. No, of course I don't like his vote. But give the man a break: He's an honorable, incredibly hard-working, inspirational young representative who is doing his darnedest to do a good job in a district ordinarily incredibly hostile to conservatives and Republicans of all stripes."

"More power to him," Hillyer concluded.

Deal Hudson, an adviser to Republicans on matters Catholic and conservative, agreed, tearing off a pointed blog post titled "Back Off Rep. Joseph Cao (R-LA)!"

"Anyone who wants to beat on Rep. Joseph Cao (R-LA) can meet me on the playground after school!" Hudson wrote, adding, perhaps with less emotion and more perception: "If Republicans are foolish enough to make life miserable for Joseph Cao they might lose a very fine Catholic politician to the other party, which would be a shame."

That points to the other part of this intriguing political equation: Will Cao get any love from the Democrats for his vote? Given the makeup of his district, Cao is considered one of the most vulnerable Republican seats next November, and the needs of his constituents may be out of lockstep with the tea party wing of the GOP.

Cao might not seem to be a man destined to buck hierarchies.

A devout Catholic who spent six years training to be a Jesuit priest (he is now married with two children), the 42-year-old Cao received degrees in philosophy at Fordham University and law at Loyola University. But it is Catholic teaching, more than institutional -- or party -- loyalties, that seem to drive him. He was one of just 29 Republicans who crossed party lines this year to to vote to reauthorize the Children's Health Insurance Program; he was one of just 17 Republicans to vote for the Obama administration's $410 billion omnibus spending bill for the final months of the current fiscal year; and he was one of just five Republicans to vote for the supplemental appropriation for military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"I think he works hard. I think he studies things, and I think he tries to do the right thing," an Obama administration official who has worked with Cao told Politico's Jonathan Allen. "People in the administration reach out to him a lot because he's willing to talk about things nondogmatically."

(Cao also has a sense of humor both parties could use; after reporters and Republicans and even the president struggled to pronounce his name correctly, Cao -- pronounced "Gow," like "Pow" -- wrote a very funny post on his blog about the proper pronunciation.)

Cao's calculations do seem to be a matter of reason as much as faith. All those party-bucking votes were for measures that helped his constituents, and Cao also remembers that one of his first votes as a representative was against Obama's stimulus package. He argued, rightly, that the Second District was last among all 435 congressional districts in benefits from the package, despite the ongoing fallout from Katrina, and he later acknowledged that a missed cell phone call from the president might have been enough to change his mind on that vote. But such was the local anger over his stimulus vote that opponents launched a recall campaign. The campaign won't go anywhere, but it was a a shot across Cao's bow.

Still, Cao's persona is such that he would likely be a bane to Democratic leaders should he flip (or be pushed). And he is not in a strong position to strike out on his own as a Republican, should he want to remain a party maverick, as some more influential or wealthier pols might be able to do.

He is a very junior member of the Republican caucus, and as Cao's Wikipedia entry notes, he is "the poorest member of Louisiana's delegation (including the state's two senators) in Congress: as of 2009, his assets were no greater than $195,000 and his potential liabilities mounting to $215,000, including student loans for himself and his wife."

Then again, maybe that's another reason he voted for the reform package.


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