Max Baucus: I was totally sober

Whatever. I liked the idea that he might be toasted: It was just before Christmas break, his side had finally achieved its decades-long dream of destroying American health care, and he had to get up and crap out the same old “party of no” talking points we’ve been listening to for six months. Why shouldn’t the man knock back a few? He earned it, damn it.

A spokesman for Baucus released the following statement: “When his friend of 30 years Ted Kennedy, with whom he had fought so hard to provide health care to children, was being used as a cheap foil to oppose health care reform, Senator Baucus gave a passionate defense. Unfortunately, those who want to kill any meaningful reform, turned it into an unfounded, untrue personal smear internet rumor. This is beyond the pale and this type of gutter politics has no place in the public sphere. It is this type of slander that makes Montanans, and Americans, disgusted with the politics as usual in Washington. And what is even more sad is that such a personal attack would be given any validity at all, let alone being elevated to the status of ‘news’.”

Mellow out, really. After a month filled with stories about this tool giving his girlfriend pay raises and trying to have her named a U.S. Attorney, getting liquored up on the floor would be the least of his sins. Exit question: Is MSNBC siding with conservatives on this one? Watch the clip from his speech that they chose to illustrate this story and tell me they aren’t.

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