GOP supporter: Cao has betrayed us, his white donors, by trying to represent his minority district.

By Alex Seitz-Wald Last November, Rep. Joseph Cao (R-LA) — who represents a heavily Democratic district — was the only Republican to vote for health care reform, saying at the time that it was “best for my constituents.” Cao switched his vote when the House took up the issue again in March and strongly condemned the bill as “at a par with slavery,” but it seems some conservatives are still holding his original vote against him. At the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, currently taking place in New Orleans, the Washington Post’s Dave Weigel reports than an “angry” Republican — who had supported Cao in the past — confronted the congressman about his health care vote. The woman was upset that Cao had raised money in “white suburbs” while supporting “liberal, spread-the-wealth, welfare, black” policies:

“He had fundraisers, he had meetings, all in the suburbs — the white suburbs,” said [Kim] Hasney [a photographer from Jefferson Parish], who attended one of those events. “He had nothing in the district. We got him elected. Then, he goes and says ‘but I have to represent my district,’ which is all liberal, giveaway, spread-the-wealth, welfare, black. We thought he would try to change the demographics of that district by supporting things that were not giveaway things. You know, supporting things that would get them out of the ghetto.” [...]

“I thought that was what he was going to do,” she said. “As a conservative Republican, bring a work ethic, bring a non-welfare ethic.”

Referencing a memo House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) released in 2008 praising Cao as “the future,” Matthew Yglesias writes, “We’re a long way from the days of ‘The Future is Cao.’”