There’s no need to go to a circus to see a tight-rope balancing act — look no further than Louisiana’s moderate politicians walking the line on health care.Dogged by political pressures and future elections, Louisiana’s two lone Democrats in Congress are vying for middle ground in the national debate over health care reform. Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-Napoleonville, and Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., both known for breaking party lines in the past, are aligning against the Democrats’ current health care reform proposals in Congress, preferring instead to tread a politically safer middle ground.Melancon, who is mulling a run for the 2010 Senate race against Sen. David Vitter, R-La., already voted against a Democratic-authored health care bill in the House, objecting to the bill over concern that a government-sponsored public option might harm the private sector and a fear the bill would result in taxpayer-funded abortions.”I am concerned that the public option, as designed, would unfairly undercut anything the private sector could offer,” Melancon said after voting against the bill in the Energy and Commerce Committee. “As someone who is personally pro-life and represents a deeply pro-life constituency, I am also concerned that this bill does not do enough to ensure taxpayer dollars do not fund abortion.”Melancon’s objections to the bill are some of the same concerns floated by Republicans in Congress — a testament to the strength of Louisiana’s largely conservative voting public.”[Melancon] isn’t even in a safe Democratic district,” said Bob Mann, mass communication professor and former communications director for Gov. Kathleen Blanco. That reality shapes Melancon’s voting record as a conservative Democrat and will influence how he runs — if he chooses to do so — against Vitter in 2010, Mann said.”He knows Vitter is going to run against Barack Obama,” Mann said. In a state that voted heavily against the Democratic ticket in 2008, Melancon will need to ensure Republicans won’t be able to convincingly align him with Obama, a line of attack the Louisiana Republican Party has already begun to implement.”Melancon is no blue dog — he’s Obama’s lap dog, and he’s too liberal for Louisiana,” reads a news release on the Louisiana Republican Party’s Web site.Landrieu isn’t up for re-election for five years, but her public statements and actions also indicate skepticism of the Democrats’ reform proposals, especially a public option.”I know there are some people really pushing this public option, but I think it really undermines the essence of our efforts to create a real market-based private sector model but with strong, I guess, safeguards for consumers,” she told The Huffington Post.Instead of signing on to the Democrats’ Senate bill, Landrieu is a co-sponsor of the Wyden-Bennett Act, a bipartisan health care reform bill.While immediate political pressure isn’t as intense for Landrieu as it is for Melancon, Mann said her reluctance to sign on with the Democrats is part of the image she has crafted for herself as a moderate, pro-compromise politician.That reputation makes her a highly sought-after vote in the Senate, since Democrats can’t always count on her vote, and it gives Landrieu the potential to leave her own special “fingerprint” on a final health care reform bill, Mann said.”She’s looking at ways to play her cards right,” Mann said.But Landrieu and Melancon’s positions do come at a potential price.MoveOn.org, a liberal organization that supports the Democrats’ health care proposals, paid for a radio ad accusing Melancon of siding with “the special interests and the insurance companies” when he voted down the bill in committee, indicating some Democrats won’t stay silent about moderate and conservative Democrats’ voting records on health care.”[Melancon and Landrieu] represent the constituents that voted them into office,” said Kevin Franck, spokesman for the Louisiana Democratic Party, defending the two Democrats’ skeptical positions on the public option. “We are a diverse people.”Mann said the math favors conservative Democrats like Melancon and Landrieu in state-wide elections in Louisiana despite the potential backlash from Democratic voters.”The Democratic Party in Louisiana is not like the Democratic Party anywhere else in the country,” Mann said.NOT JUST THE DEMOCRATSLandrieu and Melancon aren’t the only two politicians playing opposites in Louisiana — Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao, R-New Orleans, has said he is  “leaning” toward voting for the House Democrats’ health care reform proposal.Like Landrieu and Melancon, Mann said Cao is simply catering to the preferences of his constituents, a relatively liberal district with a large black population that has historically voted heavily for Democrats.”I’ve seen Cao has expressed reservations,” said Aaron Baer, spokesman for the Louisiana Republican Party, adding that Republicans were “proud” of Cao for qualifying his tepid support for the Democrats’ House bill by expressing serious concern about the possibility of taxpayer-funded abortions.The state Democrats were less charitable toward Cao, taking a “wait and see how he votes” approach. “As we saw with the stimulus, Mr. Cao did not have the courage to stand up to Mr. Boehner and the rest of the Republican leadership,” Franck said.—-Contact Nate Monroe at [email protected]