The Vietnamese-American man who came from almost total obscurity, even with other Viets, to beat a longtime incumbent was sworn in yesterday with his daughters by his side on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Ánh Joseph Cao took office as the representative from Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional District less than two months after winning a special runoff election and ousting 9-term Congressman William Jefferson, who’s under indictment on sixteen charges related to corruption.
That’s Cao in the AP photos with daughters Sophia, 5 (golden dress), and Betsy, 4 (red).
Three days after Cao’s historic December 6, 2008 victory, his hometown newspaper the New Orleans Times-Picayune remarked on how utterly obscure a background the former Jesuit seminarian had come from.
Under the hed “Vietnamese are caught off guard by Cao win” here, the paper’s David Hammer wrote:
As surprised as the political establishment in New Orleans is about Republican Anh “Joseph” Cao’s victory over nine-term Democratic incumbent Rep. William Jefferson, Vietnamese-American communities across the country may be even more shocked that Cao is the first of their ethnic group elected to Congress.
…
The Vietnamese political commentary Web site Bolsavik.com didn’t seem to notice Cao until Nov. 24, when the lead blogger noted the GOP’s investment in the race and wrote: “The first Viet congressman may not hail from Bolsavikland (a blog reference to the Orange County area) after all.”
The site received an outpouring of emotional comments when it reported news of Cao’s victory Saturday night.
(No surprise the Bolsavik chose to excerpt this part, eh?)
What difference a few weeks make.
The day before Cao’s swearing in, the same paper featured the hed: “Anh ‘Joseph’ Cao’s star is already is rising in Washington D.C.” – here.
It noted:
Even before his swearing-in, Cao is the surprising star of the new Congress.
…
On Dec. 30, Cao was the subject of a grand and glowing profile in The Washington Post style section, headlined “The Possible Dream: Louisiana’s Historic New Congressman Seems to Surprise Everybody But Himself, ” the likes of which most members of Congress can only dream of.
Country First,
Do you live in Santa Anna or work there? If not, I’d suggest that you refrain from giving out bad predictions and assumptions re Viet politicians and their intentions.
I just don’t care for patronizers, including you, who don’t know what they are talking about but pass themselves off as know-it-all pundits. Instead
of sounding smart, you end up looking stupid.
Just read your last several posts again andyou see what I mean.
Mr. SA voters,
Your point is duly noted. Thank you.
Jose S,
Yes, I should have listened to you. No, I will never support Janet again.
BTW, you have to love the fact that every time i comment here on this blog you end up with dozens of responses. That Jung Kim in particular seems to have trouble staying on his meds…
http://orangejuiceblog.com/2009/01/new-vietnamese-art-exhibit-in-santa-ana-features-commie-flag/
Art Pedroza, aka jose. s., you have hard time keeping your hands off from inside of your cholo pants.
now you are talking to yourself…. don’t you get confused in the night? Am I really a Art or jose?
I don’t know why you want to post comments in our Bolsavik blog because we don’t really appreciate anti viet, ARTURO being here.
I am sure you must be busy with your own unpopular orange blog..trying to keep it out from drowning.
If Arturo Pedroza wants to have his nose plunged inside of our viet business …..he must show proper respect to our community leaders first!
There’s NO compromises here.
Art Pedroza can use other fake names….. but we are little smart for mexicans in training of thoughts.
Have you seen many asians working for mexicans anywhere?
Anti viet Art Pedroza has selfish wrong motives when he post comments here…..and we know it!
Art Pedroza wants to protect fellow latino officials………….. namely L&L aka Lou Correra and Loretta Sanchez from our viets taking over their weak public office seats in 2010.
United viet voters can make real changes in 2010!
I don’t care about color/race of any individual when developing opinions about them …I have plenty of white, black and latino frinds and I love them dearly only because they all have good pure hearts/intentions.
Art Pedroza, when will you grow up with new vision/perspective on this life and people around you?
jung kim, check this out, this is how you take care of a few comments all in one post you dont need to spit out 7 in a row! what an idiot you must be. country first, 5 minutes of fame? i think the 5 minutes has lasted many years and still continues today and you know why? because viets are afraid of the very communists in our community especially the elected officials who pay their twisted respects to these filth who disrupt our community. if people would go down there and confront them they wouldnt be there anymore. ive been down there three times the first time the cops were called on me that didnt stop me from going back. and jung kin you still havent answered what your thoughts are about the morons on moran street? art, obviously you think too much of yourself because i dont love the fact that the communist jung kim thinks were the same person i find it insulting to tell you the truth. you love communist filth art i dont. you censor people on your blog i dont believe in censorship. and the reason people comment on this blog isnt because of people it’s because of an idiot like jung kim who does 7 comments in a row. so no art, i dont “love it”. by censoring people on your blog you only show what bullshit your blog is. nice to see mill back but he alone cant save your blog. i’m sure it’s just a matter of time before he leaves because of you. so bugger off commie lover. and jung kim, “viet business”? what you fail to understand because you’re an idiot is when “viets” behave badly it affects all of us you f-ing dolt! and please try to remember, you have no leadership in the viet community.so answer me about moran street jung kim?
jose.s., moran street is where you under achieving low IQ individuals belong in a tugging brawl for the retards. Short concise and clear you idiot!
I am glad I don’t have you as one of my follower..your negative sentiment for is only harmful to our community.
Why don’t you use your idol name in full you idiot!
Is it jose solorio you are in love with?
jose solorio wannabe, no one is afraid of communism and oh your one day demonstration stint doesn’t go long way in bringing back freedom to vietnam. Wake up and smell the roses.
Your low IQ is not an good excuse for your foul mouth and disrespect to our community leaders. You might be chasing the wrong ball you solorio wannabe doggy.
Jung Kim, you’re such a good mujer perro ! Keep barking like that and you will never have to be worry about running out of those wonderful vitamins again. If you need more just give D’s brother a call, those are good stuffs amigo.
Evidently now you feel bad about being a jose solorio wannabe…
Oh, mexican jose wannabe……. it’s perra – female dog
you don’t use mujer perro…… people might think you are really dumb.
ok Jung Kim, if you want to be a female bitch instead of a female dog that would be fine with me too, anything for you my amigo.
jose solorio wannabe… I hurt your feeling ah! and you are crying like a beach! ha ha ha.
Hey insecured one, keep using well known person’s name and with your luck….. you might get deported to laos kitty town.
Insecured rejects often wants to use the name of a person in power..falsely believing it might bring them a good luck…sort of idol worshipping.
If that is true, let them all do it Jung Kim. The more worshipers the better. Keep the barking going my perra !
Sorry jose s., wannabe!
As the local representative of Blake’s manifestation of righteous wrath, I gotta say you guys are pissing me off. With so much undone, you are bickering over the birth lottery! Your words “stick in the heart’s deep core,” but to no end! Your attacks attain the merest of relevance.