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Introducing Max Baucus

By Kellyn Brown

I first met Sen. Max Baucus five years ago in a Bozeman cafeteria. He was eating a hamburger while talking trade (one of his favorite topics) and boasting about the potential of RightNow Technologies, a burgeoning company in which he had volunteered his time during one of his trademark “workdays.” Employees there were well aware of his visit, but few broke stride while passing him en route to the lunch line.

It’s not enough to say that Baucus’ profile has risen since. After President Barack Obama took the oath of office, Montana’s senior senator and chair of the Finance Committee has gone from a real player who has long influenced policy in the background, to the point man, thus public target, in the Democrats’ push to legislate some form of universal health care by the end of the year.

The emergence of Baucus, a 30-year veteran in the Senate who is not known for his charisma and who was previously little known outside the state, has put national scribes in the position of introducing him to the rest of the country. Who is this man spearheading health care reform?

Matt Bai, in The New York Times, on Baucus’ role: “Low-key and slightly nervous, Baucus has emerged as the pivotal Democrat on what is once again the most pivotal debate in Congress.”

Carrie Budoff Brown, of POLITICO, on his colleagues’ perceptions: “Democrats have waited a long time to get within reach of passing health care reform – and now, the senator in charge isn’t someone they have always trusted. Baucus puts a premium on bipartisanship, and if he insists on winning more than a handful of Republican votes, the final product could look vastly different than a bill passed through the Senate with only a simple majority.”

Shailagh Murray and Ceci Connolly of The Washington Post, on which Baucus will emerge: “Republicans hope it’s the cautious loner with a history of betraying his party on politically sensitive bills. Democrats are rooting for the iconoclast who emerged this year as a newly reliable champion of the administration’s ambitious agenda.”

Many Montanans watching this debate from afar are unaware or indifferent to Baucus’ increased publicity. Like everywhere else, many here have opinions on whether the government should implement universal health care, and how. When the senator recently sent his staff on a listening tour across the state, he got a second-hand earful for not looking seriously at a single-payer option (which he has since reconsidered). But his pivotal role in health care reform, and his seniority in Congress, had little to do with him winning a whopping 73 percent of the vote in November; that could be attributed as much to his challenger and the fact that Baucus, as a moderate incumbent, hasn’t stepped in any major political landmines over the years.

Yet the senator, even to the state he has represented for so long, isn’t easy to pin down. He is bipartisan, yes, and before running for Senate three decades ago, Baucus didn’t even know whether he was a Republican or Democrat. But, unlike Montana’s junior Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, he doesn’t have a captivating story, like getting his fingers cut off in a meat grinder, or a recognizable haircut, like a flattop.

To Montanans, Baucus is first and foremost a politician, one well liked but not yet endeared. That could well change if he is successful in his push for some form of universal health care, which he is reportedly “obsessing” over and which, according to the Post, “could define his career.”

Maybe then, the state’s Democrats will look at him as they do former Montana Sen. Mike Mansfield, the longest-ever serving Senate majority leader, who mentored a young Baucus when he first explored politics more than three decades ago. For the legacy of Max Baucus, as well as the possibility of health care reform, this is a time when, as Baucus has said, “the stars are aligned.”