Joseph Cao Comes Home

Just wanted to post up a link on Representative Joseph Cao (Cao Quang Anh) and his return trip back down to the homeland.

The first Vietnamese-American elected to the US House of Representatives has returned to Vietnam in what he called a bid to increase understanding between the Vietnamese community in the US and Vietnamese back home.

In a meeting with Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials this week, Joseph Cao Quang Anh, a Republican, noted there had been times his comments were not in line with the best interests of the Vietnamese government, but he said such disagreements would not prevent the two sides from working together.

Read it in full here.

P.S. To Google Spellcheck

I think you should get some Viet names in the lexicon.

Anh Joseph Cao: And You're The First

Boston Herald: Cao with his wife Kate Hieu Hoang and his daughter Betsy

Caught this via some news reports as well as reader UBJ that Anh Joseph Cao, who you heard me talk about in a previous post ended up defeating Democratic incumbent William Jefferson to become - get this - the first Vietnamese American in Congress.

The first Vietnamese-American elected to Congress took advantage of dissatisfaction with a longtime incumbent dogged by corruption allegations and reflects the changing nature of New Orleans politics since Hurricane Katrina.

Republican immigration attorney Anh "Joseph" Cao defeated Democratic U.S. William Jefferson on Saturday in an election postponed for a month by Hurricane Gustav.

The victory for a 41-year-old child of Vietnam War refugees was greeted with amazement and drew parallels to last year's election of Gov. Bobby Jindal, an Indian-American Republican.

It also confirms a general shift to the GOP in Louisiana, where the Democratic Party dominated for generations and no Republican had represented New Orleans since 1890.

I have to be honest though - while on one hand I'm extremely excited at Cao being the first Vietnamese American in Congress, I can't help but wish that he was a Democrat.

I guess we just have to take small steps?