The Louisiana Purchase of 2009

Cartoon by Lisa Benson as found on Townhall.com on 11/23/09

Floyd Brown, columnist and the force behind ImpeachObamaCampaign.com wrote in an email, which I received today, regarding the motion to proceed vote that happened on Saturday evening in the Senate. In the email he describes the depth of deceit and dishonesty that the Democratic Party leadership did to bully their unwise healthcare ‘reform’ bill through the Senate vote to continue diabolical debate. And this was done against the will of the majority of Americans. Here is a quote of what he said in his email:

“Obamacare took another step toward passage this weekend with a party line vote to allow debate in the US Senate. It takes 60 votes to start debate and the 60 Democrats under the maniacal leadership of Harry Reid accomplished the task.

“But the weekend should serve notice to the naïve amongst us that the Chicago style corruption of politics has captured Washington DC with the election of Barrack Hussein Obama. The corruption of the process was in full display as Reid brokered a deal in public to send 300 billion dollars of your tax money to Louisiana in exchange for the vote of Senator Mary Landrieu. Even the Washington Post was ashamed of the open corruption. “Post political reporter Dana Milbank wrote about the details in Sunday’s edition of the paper saying:

Staffers on Capitol Hill were calling it the Louisiana Purchase.

On the eve of Saturday's showdown in the Senate over health-care reform, Democratic leaders still hadn't secured the support of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), one of the 60 votes needed to keep the legislation alive. The wavering lawmaker was offered a sweetener: at least $100 million in extra federal money for her home state.

And so it came to pass that Landrieu walked onto the Senate floor mid afternoon Saturday to announce her aye vote -- and to trumpet the financial "fix" she had arranged for Louisiana. "I am not going to be defensive," she declared. "And it's not a $100 million fix. It's a $300 million fix.

It was an awkward moment (not least because her figure is 20 times the original Louisiana Purchase price). But it was fairly representative of a Senate debate that seems to be scripted in the Southern Gothic style. The plot was gripping -- the bill survived Saturday's procedural test without a single vote to spare -- and it brought out the rank partisanship, the self-absorption and all the other pathologies of modern politics. If that wasn't enough of a Tennessee Williams story line, the debate even had, playing the lead role, a Southerner named Blanche with a flair for the dramatic.

Mr. Brown concluded by stating that most Americans must be “sick to (their) stomach(s) about the level of open chicanery in DC.” “Hopeless” is what he called any American who is not truly upset with what went on leading up to Saturday’s vote in the Senate. Using taxpayer money to purchase the vote of a wavering Senator to assure the motion to proceed debate is down right despicable.