William 'The Refrigerator' Jefferson Ousted by Vietnamese Refugee

Hopefully the next stop for Jefferson is a federal penitentiary. No doubt were his opponent a Democrat, we'd be hearing about the joys of diversity. Of course Democrats don't want much to do with the Vietnamese immigrants since they're a painful reminder of the millions they left behind to be slaughtered by the Communists.

In a year when national Republican fortunes took a turn for the worse, Louisiana delivered the GOP two seats in Congress in elections delayed by Hurricane Gustav.

Indicted Democratic U.S. Rep. William Jefferson was ousted Saturday from his New Orleans area district, while Republicans narrowly held on to the seat vacated by a retiring incumbent.

The wins followed Republicans' reconquest of another House seat earlier this fall that had been lost to Democrats.

In the 2nd Congressional District, which includes most of New Orleans, Republican attorney Anh "Joseph" Cao won 50 percent of the vote to Jefferson's 47 percent and will become the first Vietnamese-American in Congress. His only previous political experience was an unsuccessful 2007 bid for a seat in the state legislature.

In the 4th Congressional District in western Louisiana, Republican John Fleming squeaked past Democrat Paul Carmouche in the race to replace retiring 10-term Rep. Jim McCrery, R-La. Only a few hundred votes separated the two.

Republicans made an aggressive push to take the 2nd District seat from the 61-year-old Jefferson, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of bribery, laundering money and misusing his congressional office.

"The people of the 2nd District have spoken," Cao, 41, told supporters at a restaurant near the French Quarter. "We want new direction. We want action. We want accountability."

In a speech that was gracious but stopped short of concession, Jefferson blamed low voter turnout for his showing and said supporters may have thought he was a shoo-in after he won a Nov. 4 primary in the predominantly black and heavily Democratic district.

"I think people just ran out of gas a bit," he said. "People today flat didn't come out in large numbers."

Yeah, probably because some of them might be tired of voting for a criminal.

Hey, where'd those Obama coattails go? His party is now 0-3 in elections held since November 4.

Michelle Malkin has more on Cao's background.