Unfortunately for anyone hoping for some accountability today, Sen. Max Baucus doesn't face reelection until 2014. Give a senator that much job security, and you're not going to get much responsiveness. He's accountable to his voters just every six years. He checks in with his lobbyist pals every day.
But one thing is for sure, despite our era of short-attention span politics, I have no intention on forgetting these health care votes. While I've long been tolerant of Democrats' needs to represent their districts, even if it occasionally contradicts party orthodoxy, health care cuts to the very core of what it means to be a Democrat. And those Democrats who are more concerned with insurance company profits than they are about regular people have fundamentally betrayed what it means to be a Democrat. There is no justification whatsoever for abandoning people in need for monied interests. None.
2012 is all about Lieberman. It'll be the end of his political career. But 2014, I'm seeing that as the year of the Baucus. The year that we rid the Senate of his useless carcass, and finish what we started when we got rid of Conrad Burns in 2006. And we can turn that delegation from one of the worst in the nation, to one of the best. We're halfway there with Jon Tester, who hopefully won't disappoint on this issue (he's currently doing great work on FISA and the Patriot Act). We could finish the job by replacing Baucus with current Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer.
There, I said it. Heck, writing those words has me seeing Lowry-style starbursts. But a Tester-Schweitzer combo would give the country one of the most populist duos in the Senate. Here he is, mid-August, while the rest of the country was watching the teabaggers invade townhalls across the country:
As Gov. Brian Schweitzer warmed up the crowd Friday for President Barack Obama, he paid a lengthy compliment to a health-care system that leading Democrats, including the president, have declared "off the table" as a reform here: the Canadian single-payer system.
"Did you know that, just 300 miles north of here, did you know they offered universal health care 62 years ago?" he said, referring to Canada's system of providing government-funded health insurance for all citizens.
Schweitzer, a Democrat, said he sometimes mentions the Canadian system when he hears people say that universal health coverage is a radical, new idea being rushed through the political process.
Quoting a Canadian journalist, Schweitzer said "there's more likelihood of a person in Canada being struck by lightning, then there is a likelihood of a Canadian going to the United States for their health care."
Most of the crowd of 1,300 in the Gallatin Field Airport hangar roared in approval.
Think about that -- a governor from a so-called Red state isn't afraid to go where most Democrats won't touch with a 10-foot pole. There's a reason his brand of populism is so popular at home -- people respond well to politicians who look out after their interests rather than those of lobbyists. Right now, they're not getting that from this Congress.
[A] new poll by NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Harvard School of Public Health finds that, so far, the public feels profoundly shut out of the current health overhaul debate.
"Most people don't feel that they personally have a voice in this debate," said Mollyann Brodie, director of public opinion and survey research for the Kaiser Family Foundation. "In fact, 71 percent told us that Congress was paying too little attention to what people like them were saying."
Schweitzer has been previously discussed as a 2016 presidential candidate (including by me) -- chatter that intensified after his fantastic speech at last year's Democratic National Convention in Denver. The biggest knock against a presidential run for Schweitzer? He doesn't do message discipline so well. Perhaps a Senate run would be better suited for his folksy, loose style. And given his second and final gubernatorial term ends in 2012, he'd have two years to put together a solid Senate bid.
Look, Schweitzer is one of the most unabashedly optimistic politicians I've ever dealt with, who also happens to be one of the smartest and politically savvy. He sincerely cares about his state and his country, and is eager to play a role in building a better America. Yeah, that's hokey campaign shit, but here's my point -- the dude actually believes in all that stuff and has the energy and desire to fight for it. And right now, the senior senator from his state is an impediment to progress. If Schweitzer wants to play a part in moving this country forward, he could play a huge role by replacing Baucus in the Senate.
It's early, and there's plenty of time to make such a decision. Years, in fact. But maybe I can plant a little seed in his head, have him kick the idea around, mull it over a bit, and when the time comes, a few years down the road, and we start talking about a "Draft Schweitzer" movement, he could be prepared to take the leap.