Congressman Joseph Cao (R- New Orleans) has, until recently, been one of the more vocal public figures pushing for the proposed LSU/VA project and against the examination of potentially more viable alternatives that might incorporate Charity Hospital.

Notably, Rep. Cao personally delivered a letter to President Obama which pushed the demonstrable falsehood that Charity "was completed destroyed by Hurricane Katrina." Soon after, he organized a special panel at Charity Hospital in which a tour of the building and forum on the dispute was scrapped for a less specific discussion about FEMA in general.

Last week, Rep. Cao went even further toward reversing his earlier position. At a community health fair, Cao spoke to Amber Sandoval-Griffin, of the Times-Picayune:

"These are issues that we are concerned about -- the lack of health care in the city and the lack of accurate adequate infrastructure, " Cao said. "In respect to Charity, my main focus is to get the necessary funding, the $492 million that the state contends FEMA owes the state, to either rebuild the old Charity or to build a new state-of-the-art hospital."

(Emphasis added)

That's an important step for the Congressman, though he misleadingly sets up the dichotomy as being between an "old Charity" and a new hospital when in fact both competing proposals would result in a brand-new state-of-the-art facility. One step at a time, of course.