Its long been clear that the Democrats trillion dollar stimulus is nothing more than a slush fund to buy Congressional votes for replacing the American experiment in Democracy with European-style socialism.

Actually, its more specifically French-style socialism, and if you are familiar with France's public sector which encompasses 70% of the country's GDP, and where government ministers from 'bon famille' circulate between private sector sinecures in government-owned enterprises and public sector fiefdoms, you might understand the attraction.

Nothing drives your educationally-elite Democrat crazier than making a civil service salary while some guy who starts a pizza chain becomes a millionaire. These people are so much smarter than everyone else, as demonstrated by their degrees from fine universities in such socially vital fields as women's studies, political science, and the law (of course!). From their perspective, the U.S. is an upside down country, where 'idiots' earn fabulous wealth and adulation while their betters languish in anonymity and genteel poverty.

Now France knows how to do things. Jacques Chirac, the son of school teachers, established himself with attendence at the most prestigious schools in France, entering the government directly afterwards and soon being tapped to assist then-President Georges Pompidou. He never held a 'real job' in his entire life, moving from government ministry to government ministry until finally winning elective office as mayor of Paris.

Ironically, that is pretty much the work history of the last five Democrat presidential candidates as well--groomed from their youth to rule and reign.

A lot more entrepreneurially-challenged Democrats would like to have similar careers, but something first has to be done about this damn American culture of self-made men and women.

Enter carbon taxes and publicly-run health-care, both designed to create the kind of government dependency a good oligarch needs to function.

I'd love to be a bird on the wire in the Democrat caucuses these days. Senators and Congressmen must be getting fabulous buy-out offers to fall on their political swords to "get this done". I'm most curious about what Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson are being offered to "go along". Lieberman in particular must be having a ball watching his antagonists squirm.

You'd smile too, if you were this man-->

Roland Burris must be the luckiest guy in the world. A senator only because of a storied turn in Chicago politics that had disgraced former governor Blagojevich appoint him in an attempt to buy off the Illinois black caucus, he survived being outed as just another Chicago pol on the take as it was revealed his paid for his Senatorship with cold hard cash. The consensus has been that Burris is toast come next years election, but the health care debacle has given a powerful negotiating stance.

And on Monday, after Democrats indicated that they were prepared to meet the demands of Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, and strip the last vestige of a public option from their bill, Mr. Burris went to the Senate floor to warn that he had not committed to vote for the legislation.

Mr. Burris, however, did calibrate his language: “I am committed to voting for a bill that achieves the goals of a public option: competition, cost savings and accountability,” he said. “I will not be able to vote for lesser legislation that ignores those fundamentals.”

He added: “My colleagues may have forged a compromise bill that can achieve the 60 votes that will be needed for it to pass. But until this bill addresses cost, competition and accountability in a meaningful way, it will not win mine.”

If Democrats want their French socialist utopia, they are going to have to pay Roland Burris, and Joe Lieberman, and Ben Nelson, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera...