If House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is correct -- "we've got the votes" -- what's taking so long?  Apparently, the votes in favor of the healthcare bill have NOT all been accounted for and now it's time for the holdouts to collect whatever they can for their constituents, even if they are just getting back something recently taken away -- in this case, water.  Two California Congressmen from the heavily agricultural central valley, Cardoza and Costa, have apparently been offered increased water allocations from the Federal Government for an area that only recently was starved of water by the same Federal Government.  This has resulted in extreme unemployment and severely decreased food production as farms shut down for lack of water.

For viewers who may not know this, California has one of the largest agricultural economies in the world, and most of it is driven by irrigation water from the Sierra Nevada and one of the planet's largest networks of canals and water distribution systems.  Summers are hot and dry, so all the water comes in the winter and is stored in reservoirs for summertime release, or is diverted from other parts of the state.  Much of this water is controlled by the Federal Government through the Department of Interior, the agency that administers these kinds of things.  From a Department of the Interior press release yesterday:

“Typically, Reclamation would release the March allocation update around March 22nd, but moved up the announcement at the urging of Senators Feinstein and Boxer, and Congressmen Costa and Cardoza.”(“Interior Announces Increased Water Supply Allocations in California,” U.S. Department of Interior news release, 3/16/10)

Now that this exchange of Healthcare votes for water has come out, people are hopping mad, as this comment from "Jeff" attests from the NRCC web site...

So Obama is holding the jobs of thousands of people and severely affecting the food supply of this country as a bribe to get votes to pass a Marxist Death Care Bill. The man is despicable and should be brought on trial for treason or at least impeached. He will pay. What he is doing is worse then what the British did to start the revolution. He will get the same treatment. Millions of us probably over 100 million are not going to let this Marxist destroy our country and our freedoms. Some of us will fall on the way but he will not be allowed to destroy this country.

It's funny how these kinds of things always seem to happen to people who are members of the opposition party, as "charles" points out...

Does anyone remember the arbitrary water CUTOFF to the valley by obama last year? Agribusiness in the valley is heavily Republican and this was perceived as a slap down to Republicans along the lines of the auto dealership confiscations from Republican dealers. Many blue collar latinos actually began to switch to republican when they lost their jobs because the obama administration claimed this was necessary to save the population of a small fish. Now they are giving back some water to appear as heroes to the latino population and buy the votes of congressmen. Are the little fish no longer endangered? This is the very worst kind of cat and mouse being played on the american people.

...apparently, these Congressmen got a better deal than Dennis Kuchinich, who announced with great fanfare this morning that he would vote "Yes" -- as "Greg" pointed out...

I guess they got a better deal then Dennis Kuchinich who was seen yesterday being held by his feet out the door of Air Farce One as it circled Ohio. Needless to say it appears that Costa and Cardoza's careers as politicians is over.

If the President and House Speaker get these people to flip their votes, it's possible the vote could get done on Friday night, the most popular time to pass highly unpopular laws, and just in time for the weekly news hole.