How Much Is One Vote Worth in the Health Care Reform Battle?

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Let's Make a Deal

Is Majority Leader Harry Reid trying to buy a senator's vote for health care reform? Reid's bill includes a section increasing federal Medicaid subsidies for what it calls certain sta tes recovering from a major disaster. On page 434 of the bill, the language specifies states that, "during the preceding seven fiscal years, the president has declared a major disaster," under a certain law.

It turns out the complicated language actually applies to just one state: Louisiana.

Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana has yet to say whether she will support the bill and Reid needs Landrieu's vote for passage.

The Congressional Budget Office says the cost of the Louisiana subsidies in the bill totals $100 million. Landrieu's spokesman says of the aid: "It's something she has been working on for a long time."

On Ice

Global warming has stalled. That's the conclusion of a German magazine article quoting climatologists who are baffled by the global warming time-out: "Not much is happening with global warming at the moment. The earth's average temperatures have stopped climbing since the beginning of the millennium, and it even looks as though global warming could come to a standstill this year."

The article suggests that could complicate next month's United Nations climate change summit. One of Germany's best-known climatologists says temperatures have reached a plateau: "There can be no argument about that. We have to face that fact."

Detainee Abuse

Wisconsin National Guard troops working at a detainee camp in Iraq are getting teased by inmates about, of all things, former Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre.

A Wisconsin radio station reports the detainees asked questions about all the Packers-themed decorations on the base and learned of the once-beloved Favre's defection to the hated Minnesota Vikings.

One first lieutenant says: "They know Favre by name. One of the big words they know now is 'shenanigan.' They'll constantly talk about 'Favre shenanigans'; 'He's so good for the Vikings,' and 'The Packers have got to really feel bad about that one.'"

Favre's Vikings won both games against Green Bay this fall.

— Fox News Channel's Lanna Britt contributed to this report.