The Washington Post, in another attempt to deify Catfud II, published a portrait of Max Baucus (et: latin, most useless) as if he were the last guardian at the gate of reason in D.C. Needless to say that it is a steaming heap of goat entrails ... but I will elaborate below the fold.
After 10 weeks of haggling with Democrats and Republicans on the special deficit-reduction panel, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) reached the end of his rope.
Normally stoic and analytical, Baucus grew angry and emotional Thursday as he told Democrats on the “supercommittee” about the courage of his nephew Phillip E. Baucus, a Marine corporal who was killed in Iraq in July 2006.
That courage, he said, is nowhere to be found in Washington when it comes to solving the government’s fiscal quagmire. And now, with a deadline for a plan just a few days away, the 12 lawmakers on the panel are squandering the best opportunity that any committee has been given to deal with the more than $15 trillion in debt accumulated by Uncle Sam, he added.
Is this coming from a man who questioned sending his nephew to a war without reason or end? Here is a list of the noble Senators who voted against sending our youth to death in Iraq for no just cause:
* Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii)
* Jeff Bingaman (D-New Mexico)
* Barbara Boxer (D-California)
* Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia)
* Lincoln Chaffee (R-Rhode Island)
* Kent Conrad (D-North Dakota)
* Jon Corzine (D-New Jersey)
* Mark Dayton (D-Minnesota)
* Dick Durbin (D-Illinois)
* Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin)
* Bob Graham (D-Florida)
* Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii)
* Jim Jeffords (I-Vermont)
* Ted Kennedy (D-Massachusetts)
* Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont)
* Carl Levin (D-Michigan)
Senator Max Baucus is not among those sage and wise men and woman. Either his wisdom or his heroism failed his nation and his nephew.
Note the cause of his angst, more than $15 trillion in debt accumulated by Uncle Sam,, not a lost life or a lost generation ... remember that.
“I lost a nephew in Iraq; 4,000 men and women lost their lives in the service to their country, and yet a majority of Congress are not willing to put their jobs on the line to reach an agreement,” Baucus said in an interview Thursday afternoon
— I’ll put the both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue in this — [lawmakers are] too worried about their jobs in order to reach an agreement.”
Bill O'Reilly couldn't have said it better... youth chopped up in a blender and BOTH sides are equally at fault. And Baucus is just as qualified at Mr. O'Reilly, or any REAL American, as it were, because he is a VERY SERIOUS MAN:
His diagnosis for the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction carries extra weight because he has been a key player in just about every protracted congressional negotiation on domestic policy for the past 11 years — from the 2001 George W. Bush tax cuts to President Obama’s health-care legislation to this year’s debt debates.
His work with Republicans early last decade made him someone they think they can deal with, but his co-sponsorship of Obama’s health-care bill in 2009 and 2010 sharpened him into a more partisan Democrat in their eyes.
Yes, Max Baucus has indeed been in the middle of every protracted congressional negotiation on domestic policy for the past 11 years - do we need to look far for a lowest common denominator? Is this a good thing to brag on? But he is serious and he must be bipartisan, because, well:
Some liberals in Congress will never forgive him for working with the Bush White House to pass the 2001 tax cuts — which now are a major factor in the nation’s fiscal calamity — and a Medicare prescription drug deal in 2003. Throughout his participation in the debt panel, some Democrats have been wary of Baucus, fearing that he’ll go too far in his dealings with individual Republicans.
How dare "Liberals in Congress" impune him for these serious and bipartisan actions? Keep up with the bold highlights.
The Post writer, whose name I will not honor with an utter, then proceeds to exhault Baucus' heroic stamina and good humor in a truly Homeric style. Detailing, without details, how our stalwart Demi-Moderate has mediated between conservatives and liberals of equally intemperate dispositions until:
At the Democratic meeting Thursday morning, Baucus said that he became exasperated.
“What in the world are we doing? Who are we,” he asked. If the committee does not act by midnight Wednesday, all its special legislative privileges disappear, blowing what the senator considers a major opportunity to do something big.
Let's look at those Bold Words about our bold Senator:
- more than $15 trillion in debt accumulated by Uncle Sam,
- he has been a key player in just about every protracted congressional negotiation on domestic policy for the past 11 years — from the 2001 George W. Bush tax cuts to President Obama’s health-care legislation to this year’s debt debates
- working with the Bush White House to pass the 2001 tax cuts — which now are a major factor in the nation’s fiscal calamity — and a Medicare prescription drug deal in 2003.
- If the committee does not act by midnight Wednesday, all its special legislative privileges disappear
The Washington Post is so enamoured of the Homeric epic, in which equal sides battle to the amusement of the Gods that they miss the most salient fact. The Gods toy with our troubles and in their games men like Max Baucus are the favored pawn. All of the deficits that Mr. Baucus rails against are the result of his own doing. The Wars, the Tax Cuts, the Pharmacuetical welfare... and he regrets that he may not be able to utilize more "special legislative privileges"?
"The fault, dear Baucus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings. "