Reid's Louisiana Purchase

In 1803 the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory (828,000 square miles, thereby doubling the size of the country) for $15 million from Napoleon.  On Saturday, Harry Reid spent 20 times that amount purchasing Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu's aye vote on cloture, through a $300 million Medicaid earmark for her state.  Oblivious to the clear appearance of impropriety, she defiantly corrected earlier reports, that the goodies were worth $100 million.  In her own words:

"I will correct something. It's not $100 million, it's $300 million, and I'm proud of it and will keep fighting for it," she told reporters.

Joseph Cao (R-LA) was similarly (though much more cheaply) purchased on November 7th.  From Fox News:

The final pitch came Saturday around noon, when Obama called Cao and apparently offered assurances that he would help economic recovery in his district, which is mostly minority and poor. Obama got 75 percent of the votes in Cao's district in last November's presidential election.

"We were able to sit down to talk about recovery, to talk about the needs of the district," Cao told Fox News, though he said no "promises" were made. "The administration and I, we have a very great relationship."

No promises.  Yeah.  Right.  Cao was the only Republican to vote for the Pelosi health care bill.

Huey "Share the Wealth" Long would be proud.