The Politico headline puts it best: "Holy Cao!" This weekend, a Republican lawyer named Joseph Cao finally offed corrupt Louisiana Democratic Representative Bill Jefferson, pulling off something of a shock.
Now, the fact that a Republican managed to (amazingly, narrowly!) defeat an indicted legislator renowned on several continents for having hid $90,000 in bribe money in his freezer in no way presages the beginning of some kind of grand political reversal for the GOP. But still, Jefferson's district is one of the most Democratic in the country. And Joseph Cao has some ... interesting times ahead of him, trying to maintain his status within the House Republican conference while pleasing his constituents: They voted 76% for John Kerry in 2004. Does any Democrat hold a seat that went so strongly for the Republican presidential candidate? It's too late at night to go through every district, but I'm pretty sure that of the Democratic freshmen elected in 2006 -- a quite conservative class -- the new Democrat with the most Bush-loving district was Brad Ellsworth, whose Indiana constituents voted for Bush by a comparatively paltry 62% in '04.
--Eve Fairbanks