Yesterday I received an e-mail from Max Baucus (D-Mont.) through his campaign telling me, “Max Baucus, Montana’s longest-serving U.S. Senator, completed his 9th career marathon in less than 5 hours in Billings on Sunday.”
Of course there were photos of Baucus running and crossing the finish line. Congratulations Max. That is quite an accomplishment!
But I wonder why Baucus was not in Washington, D.C. According to his schedule, he left Washington on Friday morning and returned to Washington on Monday. He was mostly campaigning.
As the 6th most powerful Senator and the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and with one of our country’s worst financial crisis happening, why wasn’t Baucus back in Washington meeting with fellow members of Congress to come up with a solution to this problem?
Lawmakers were meeting over the weekend to work on this problem. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) said, “There has never been a moment as serious as this one.”
Yes, very serious. Even Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont), a member of the Senate Banking Committee, did not appear to be in these crucial meetings. His schedule listed “No Public Events” for Saturday and Sunday.
One would think at least Baucus would have been there, since he proclaims himself so powerful in the Washington arena.
Baucus is heavily favored to win another six year term. Although he is proclaimed to be powerful and almighty by the media, the fact is when the rubber meets to road in Washington, D.C., Baucus is left out of critical negotiations. This weekend’s meetings show he is just as ineffective as ever.
The Western Word 
Hey James – Thanks for your comments. Ol’ Jon “I won the election because my friend Brian rigged it for me” Tester fails to see that the ball is in his party’s court here. They have been in charge of the Senate and House for two years and, frankly, things are not better. -Jack
Interesting information Jack, thanks. It didn’t mention this in the front page IR article this morning where Tester couldn’t help but lay the blame on Bush …http://helenair.com/articles/2008/09/23/state/60st_080923_fix.txt‘Tester also faulted the Bush administration for being “asleep at the switch” as financial markets neared collapse and giving lawmakers just four days to consider the largest government bailout since the Great Depression.’