First it was the Louisiana Purchase – $300 million for a Vote.

Then it was the Nebraska Corn Husker deal, opting out of Medicaid payments in perpetuity for a vote.  Nebraska got the corn, the rest of the nation got the husk.

And now Obama makes a Hoffa-like deal and Unions are excluded from taxes on Cadillac health plans for blocks of Democratic votes in 2010 and 2012.

All, back-room bribery deals – didn’t Obama promise ‘change’ when he came to DC, something called ‘transparency’ and the ‘lobbying’  industry was going to be a thing of the past in the beltway?

Today ‘lobbying’ in DC is one of the few places you can find a job.

I could have sworn it was a black man with a mask riding into town on a white horse when he first arrived with a portfolio of promises.

But perhaps I was mistaken and it was Tonto, who said to the white man, “What do you mean ‘we’ kimosabe?”

Obama won a health care victory, the Unions exchanged blocks of votes for what they wanted for their members, Nebraska got exemption from Medicaid payments and Louisiana picked up $300 million.

Those were the winners.

Americans were the losers.

For, it is the rest of us, especially those that are not part of the collective-bargaining agreements, that must pay immediately some $90 million for the back room Chicago-style deals to offset the chits the lobbying winners called up, while Obama reaches for his goal of wealth re-distribution.  It  fits well into the Saul Alinsky plan, closely followed by Obama, as described in his book “Rules For Radicals.”

Unions were well represented at the closed-door bargaining table with Obama.

There was AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka; Andy Stern, head of the Service Employees International Union – who visited the White House more than 20 times in one year; Anna Burger, head of Change to Win; and the leaders of unions representing teachers, government workers, food and commercial workers and electricians.

Despite Obama’s idealistic promises that have proven to be pure mendacity, it’s politics as usual in DC.  The Lone Ranger with the silver bullet is a mere mortal that has fallen in line with the bureaucracy.