Senator Christopher Dodd, facing an uphill battle for his senate seat next year, received a little Christmas present from Harry Reid in the health care reform "manager's amendment:" a $100 million plum for a hospital.

The AP reports that the $100 million will be used for "a health care facility that provides research, inpatient tertiary care, or outpatient clinical services." It must be affiliated with an academic health center at a public research university in the United States "that contains a State's sole public academic medical and dental school."

Would it surprise you to learn that Connecticut has only one "academic medical and dental school?" The state is one of about a dozen that will be competing for the money but a powerful senator like Dodd easily has the inside track.

I sure hope Harry Reid is keeping track of all these bribes and favors. Come November 2010, he may have to call in his chits after he gets the tar whupped out of him on election day.

Hat Tip: Ed Lasky