Word: baucus
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...Wisconsin. The Democratic delegation had an average age of 66; it included Charlie Rangel, fresh from his "admonishment" by the House Ethics Committee. In the absence of Ted Kennedy, it had no senior legislative health care expert from the Senate - unless you count Senate Finance Committee chair Max Baucus, of whom the less said, the better. (Senator Ron Wyden, who has done the most creative thinking about health care policy of any Senate Democrat, was added to his party's roster at the last moment and was allowed to speak only briefly, toward the end of the day. He used...
...cleverness of the Republican blocking strategy demanded a more precise Democratic response. It demanded more forceful leadership from the President, to be sure. It demanded a brisk, disciplined legislative process. But that seems well beyond the capacity of the current Democratic leaders. The most egregious example was Reid allowing Baucus to dawdle for three months, attempting to cut a deal with the Republicans on the Finance Committee, during which time support for the bill curdled as Tea Party Summer unfolded. The Democrats also allowed their own special interests - the lawyers, the labor unions - as well as individual members to barnacle...
...weeks ago, when Reid yanked a bipartisan jobs bill that was hammered out by Democrat Max Baucus and Republican Chuck Grassley, it looked like he was on course to do the same thing he did with health care reform: pull a bipartisan deal and replace it with a partisan bill. But that barely worked when the Democrats had 60 votes - so how could Reid hope to ram something through now, when he's one vote short of stopping a Republican filibuster? (See pictures of Republican memorabilia...
...important means of influence, however, is personal. Lobbying firms and organizations are overwhelmingly composed of former House and Senate staffers of both parties and even former Congressmen and Senators. Take the health care debate as an example. The Senate health care bill was largely the baby of Senator Max Baucus, who, as Finance Committee chairman, had jurisdiction over the issue. Health industry interests, including pharmaceutical and insurance companies, hired a total of seven former Baucus aides to lobby him, including at least two of his former chiefs of staff. In total, the Washington Post counted at least 51 former staffers...
...News on Friday. "I mean, in the states we were all hoping to see a robust jobs bill, and we're confounded by this action, absolutely confounded." And fellow endangered incumbent, Senator Blanche Lincoln, an Arkansas Democrat, said in a press release that she hopes Reid "will reconsider. [The Baucus-Grassley] bill was carefully crafted to achieve significant bipartisan support...