U.S. Grant

Yesterday, within an hour of each other, I saw two tweets from Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) -- two of the most at-risk Republican senators running for re-election this year -- excitedly proclaiming the big grants they got from the U.S. government for their home states.

Collins got $9.5 million to "preserve & modernize" affordable housing in Maine.  Gardner announced over $20 million for upgrades and improvements to Colorado airports.

Various reactions.

At least we now know what it costs to buy one vote to acquit.

Colorado apparently has double a higher standard of living than Maine.  Perhaps it's the Aspen and Denver ski resorts as opposed to being stuck out in the middle of nowhere away from everything else in the U.S.

Cory Gardner clearly is a far-better negotiator than Susan Collins.

We now have a good idea what the current value is for 20 pieces of silver.  (Factoring in that "standard of living" difference, of course.)

Usually when people get bribed they try to hide it much, much better.

Although Gardner is obviously a stronger negotiator, neither he nor Collins appear very good at it since the best they can do is get money to "preserve & modernize" and for "upgrades and improvements."  They couldn't even get new housing units or new transportation centers that would provide real benefits to people.  The best they could come up with is money for a paint job and better faucets.

In Chicago when they wanted to fix elections, they often just took names off of death registers.  But since there are only 100 senators, it probably would be too weird if the vote total to acquit was 105.  Also, when paying people to get their votes, machine bosses often just had to give them lunch and a ride to the polls.  Senators obviously cost much more.

I'm looking forward to seeing residents of Maine and Colorado wearing t-shirts that say -- "My senator sold out for a traitor and all our state got was lousy upgrades."

Susan Collins and Cory Gardner are each one step closer to being out of their jobs.