In another body blow to the New Orleans economy, Northrop Grumman announced yesterday it has decided to move all its Gulf Coast shipbuilding operations to Pascagoula, Miss. when current construction projects at Avondale are completed in 2013. That means the 5,000 people who now work at Avondale will have to find new jobs. Another estimated 7,000 jobs also depend on the shipyard.

From Northrop Grumman’s perspective, it’s just good business to consolidate operations for the sake of efficiency and the bottom line. The company said it further plans to separate shipbuilding from its other enterprises. “Recognizing our company’s long-term strategic priorities, we foresee little synergy between shipbuilding and our other businesses,” says Wes Bush, CEO and president of Northrop Grumman. “It is now appropriate to explore separating shipbuilding from Northrop Grumman.”

Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao, R-La., says he will try to keep the 5,000 jobs in the New Orleans area. “Taking away thousands of shipbuilding jobs in an area known worldwide for its shipbuilding is a real blow to us,” he said in a statement. “This couldn’t have come at a worse time because we are still dealing with the effects of (Hurricane) Katrina and, now, the economically debilitating effects of the oil spill. … We have real possibilities for bridging the funding gaps. This isn’t the end for these jobs, and I will continue to fight to keep them here in Southeast Louisiana.”

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., vows she will try to get company officials to reverse the decision “to turn its back on Louisiana and the thousands of workers in the state,” she says. “While the company might believe this decision will have a positive effect in the short term on its bottom line, the long-term consequences for Louisiana’s economy, our national security and Northrop Grumman itself will be devastating.”

Northrop Grumman says it only has two transport ships to be built at Avondale by 2013 under current contracts. In February, the Navy canceled plans for two amphibious ships that were to be built at Avondale. With declining contracts for seagoing vessels, Northrop Grumman says it may get out of shipbuilding altogether.

Minutes after the health care bill passed 219-212 in the House of Representatives, several Louisiana politicos pressed SEND and sent out their email statements. (Well, their staffs did. But still.) Below the jump, some comments from Sen. Mary Landrieu, Rep. Charlie Melancon (who voted nay) and state Rep. Cedric Richmond, who’s running for Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao’s Congressional seat in November, and couldn’t resist slapping Cao for his nay vote.

Might as well … jump!

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Washington D.C. (and the Republican party) are waiting to see what Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao will do at this weekend’s vote on health care reform (he told the Associated Press this afternoon he’s “pretty much a definite no”). This is a 180-degree reversal of his November vote in favor of President Barack Obama’s HCR plan … for which he received plenty of flak from his own party.

Now his former director of communications is running for her own Congressional seat, and she seems to be taking a big step back from Cao as well. Princella Smith, who served as Cao’s director of communications for 10 months, has announced her own candidacy for the House of Representatives, seeking to fill the Arkansas 1st District seat currently held by retiring Rep. Marion Berry. Smith, an Arkansas native, is the fourth contender to join the field.

Smith’s positions are consistently more to the right than those of her former boss, who occasionally crossed the aisle to vote with the Democratic majority, and nowhere is the difference between the two more apparent than on the issue of immigration. Two months after taking office, Cao became a cosponsor of H.R.1751 (“The American Dream Act”), which would allow undocumented students who graduate from American high schools to obtain green cards and get on a faster track toward permanent residency — a bill strongly opposed by many Republicans.

Smith’s position on immigration is summed up in its own page on her Web site: “Cut off all federal dollars to any entity that provides amnesty to illegal immigrants. No federal money for highways, healthcare, infrastructure or political pork. No money, period.” She also distanced herself from Cao’s November vote for Obama’s healthcare plan in an interview with The American Spectator: “My job was to communicate why he did what he did. That’s it. … He pushed the button himself.”

Meanwhile, Cao’s name is conspicuously absent on Smith’s endorsement Web page. Cao’s new communications director, Clayton Hall, did not return email inquiries as to whether the congressman would be endorsing his former aide, nor did Smith herself.

Should Smith win, she would be the first black Republican woman to serve in the House and, at 27, one of the youngest members of Congress ever. Her star began rising in the GOP in 2004, when she won an MTV-sponsored speech contest called “Stand Up and Holla” and was invited to be a prime-time speaker at that year’s Republican National Convention. Since then, she has worked as a spokesperson and campaign director for groups founded by former Rep. Newt Gingrich and Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele. In another local angle, Smith also counts national GOP political consultant (and New Orleans resident) Mary Matalin among her mentors; Matalin has referred to Smith as her “little sister.”

Americans loathe Congress, but they still like President Barack Obama according to a recent Associated Press poll.  A mere 22 percent support Congress while public approval for Obama’s job performance checks in at 53 percent even though Karl Rove casts the president as “undisciplined.”

The poll also reveals that party affiliation doesn’t inspire confidence — 50 percent of those surveyed would give a pink slip to their congressperson. As the midterm elections approach, public perception obviously matters and pols, but not polls (there’ll be plenty more), will struggle to prove their worth.

And it raises the question, what do you think of your own representative? Will you vote for them, choose someone else, or does it matter what you think, change is going to come?

*photo by Cheryl Gerber

Today, Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao (R-La.) introduced H.R. 1079 onto the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives — a bill congratulating the New Orleans Saints on their Super Bowl victory. Sure, it ain’t health care, but it’s the kind of collegial feel-good resolution that allows Congresscritters to give each other the warm fuzzies. The bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support by a vote of … 375-1.

Yes, someone voted against congratulating the Saints for winning the Super Bowl. Who? This dude:

What a jackanapes you are, Rep. Tim V. Johnson of Illinois.

Here’s the footage of Cao introducing the resolution on the House floor. Nice.