You could call it "The Louisiana Purchase."
In order to get Louisiana's Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu simply to vote with her own party just to allow debate to begin, $100 million for her state was inserted in the health-care legislation sponsored by Majority Leader Harry Reid.
The money will go to aid poor people and, heaven knows, Louisiana can use it.
But consider: The figure dwarfs the $11 million that was coughed up for the original Louisiana Purchase, which included enough land to double the size of the United States.
By implicitly threatening to support a Republican filibuster, thereby bringing down their president and party's signature issue without a debate, three so-called "conservaDems" - Landrieu; Ben Nelson, of Nebraska; and Blanche Lincoln; of Arkansas -have wielded inordinate power over the bill already.
Their concerns -or should we say "concessions"- have mattered more than the fifty-five senators and one independent who either have worked hard on health care - including our own senator Bob Casey - or at least wouldn't stand in the way of letting debate begin, like Sen. Arlen Specter.
And the horse-trading has just begun. Who knows how much the current (decent) bill will have to be disemboweled to entice these and other Democratic senators - many of whom won't vote for the bill anyway - to allow it to come to a vote once debate is concluded?
Yes, we know, it's never pleasant to watch legislation or sausage being made, but it has to be said: This system is rancid.
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