The New York Times has a profile today of Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT), who has frustrated progressives over his handling of the health care reform process. Protests at town hall meetings across the country have been captured and posted online, but such technology has seemed to elude Baucus:
After speaking at a preventive-care conference here last week, he was swarmed by protesters. Or, in Mr. Baucus’s words, “agitators, whose sole goal was to intimidate, disrupt and not let any meaningful conversation go on.” There were a couple of people in the crowd “with YouTubes,” Mr. Baucus added (meaning cameras), and he posited that the agitators were paid and probably from out of state. (“I could just sense it,” he said.)
Baucus is a whine rack.
August 19th, 2009 at 1:41 pmIdiot.
August 19th, 2009 at 1:41 pmAre youtubes part of the internets?
August 19th, 2009 at 1:42 pmThe only real thing that he knows is where the money is coming from. But he will never tell you that.
August 19th, 2009 at 1:44 pm.
Dedicated to the ignorance called…
… Baucus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cZC67wXUTs
.
August 19th, 2009 at 1:44 pmThat is really pathetic.
I’m gonna send money to any Dem who runs against Baucus.
August 19th, 2009 at 1:45 pm“Baucus agitated by people ‘with YouTubes.’” lol Sounds like Baucus picked up the Dubya dictionary. Get with the program and get use to the You Tubes and the internets, Baucus. It’s here to stay. This tells you how out of touch he is with technology.
August 19th, 2009 at 1:45 pmHe’s channelling his inner Ted Stevens.
August 19th, 2009 at 1:45 pmIt’s a series of tubes!
August 19th, 2009 at 1:46 pmAmanda, that picture is hilarious!
August 19th, 2009 at 1:48 pmAnd this idiot is running the senate committee on health care reform?!?!!
God, help us all
August 19th, 2009 at 1:52 pmThere were a couple of people in the crowd “with YouTubes,” Mr. Baucus added (meaning cameras)
– - Facepalm.
August 19th, 2009 at 1:53 pmwhat kind of person calls cameras “youtubes”
he’s a grown man who’s seen cameras his whole life…this is fantastically crazy.
its as if he’s a 5 year old who has grown up with both youtube and cameras together and associates them together.
hahaha
August 19th, 2009 at 1:55 pm- – Old people talking about the internet:
http://www.oldpeopletalkingabouttheinternet.com/index.php
August 19th, 2009 at 1:55 pmI like Baucus for the most part but he may have just walked into the same stupid pit that Ted Stevens fell into.
August 19th, 2009 at 2:01 pmThe Internet is a relatively recent invention and allows information to flow freely and more importantly, to be stored and retrieved at a later time. Politicians (and their masters) are accustomed to “managing” the debate and don’t understand that their lies don’t just vanish into thin air, the way they used to.
So they are understandably angry and befuddled when people use this newfangled technology to look into their past and quote their words back to them. If only reporters would do the same thing: it might save our country a lot of unnecessary grief.
August 19th, 2009 at 2:03 pmSeriously. WHEN will the Senate act to REMOVE Baucus as chair of the health care reform committee? Otherwise known as his “committee that pays me millions from insurance corporations and gives me the opportunity to work with Republicans sucking dry their greedy behinds and thanking them for the privilege” committee?
Oh wait. That would require action on Reid’s part. Silly me.
Capitulaters of a feather, suck Republican’s behinds together.
August 19th, 2009 at 2:05 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
The winger paranoia increases. They are projecting, lying, and spinning so hard they can barely stand up straight.
Keep waving “those You Tubes” progressives. The wingers are scared sh*tless that their lies are losing traction.
The majority will prevail.
Cheers :)
August 19th, 2009 at 2:06 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
Taylor Doose says:
August 19th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Quitcherpissingandmoaning.
August 19th, 2009 at 2:08 pmcd says:
I like Baucus for the most part but he may have just walked into the same stupid pit that Ted Stevens fell into.
– - The “stupid pit” of not keeping up on current technology the entire world uses and being an anachronism that has no business in affecting the lives of tens of millions of people? That stupid pit?
August 19th, 2009 at 2:10 pmSo tell me again why we as Progressive voters should put up with and financially support Deomcratic party representatives who are so far out of touch with 1) their constituents needs, 2) reality, and 3) basic modern technology?!!!
Isn’t it way beyond time for Progressives and the Netroots to move beyond the old, soft, Democratic Party, leave Blue Dogs behind, and start vigorously supporting actual Progressive, younger, more in-touch, and less corporate-owned representatives who at least understand modern society and 21st century technology?
August 19th, 2009 at 2:11 pmHow do we allow people to be elected who have no idea how the real world works?
August 19th, 2009 at 2:14 pmIs it asking too much to get just one senate democratic who comes from a state where people outnumber livestock involved in drafting a healthcare reform bill?!?
August 19th, 2009 at 2:16 pmElections have consequences
even if you think you’re on the winning side
August 19th, 2009 at 2:17 pm22. Badmoonpit,
I somewhat agree that he hit the stupid pit.
But it bothers me to no end that these folks who obviously have no understanding of technology are the some folks who are making laws for technology.
There are some really hefty details that need to be thrashed out (under healthcare see things such as telemedicine that extends over state borders. What about copyright in a digital age of Mashups? etc.) and these folks don’t understand what they are legislating.
August 19th, 2009 at 2:17 pmBeethoven Rules says
Al Gore invented the YouTubes?
August 19th, 2009 at 2:19 pmI’m trying to figure out who is more stupid-Baucus or Grassley.
August 19th, 2009 at 2:21 pmHeh…
August 19th, 2009 at 2:21 pm???????? | toasterhead says:
August 19th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Is that what you were aiming for? :D
August 19th, 2009 at 2:25 pmWell, to be fair, he *is* from Montana. I hear they only just got electricity 10 years ago… ;)
August 19th, 2009 at 2:25 pmZooey says:
Is that what you were aiming for? :D
August 19th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
I was trying to change my name to
August 19th, 2009 at 2:27 pmخفّاش طوسترهاد but Wordpress ain’t having it. :(
Beethoven Drools,
The internet was invented by the US military during the cold war as a means to communicate even if nukes started flying.
Guess what, that makes the internet a socialist program. Therefore Republicans should not use it or they are just promoting the move to socialism.
August 19th, 2009 at 2:27 pmShorter Baucus: Get off my grass tubers!!
August 19th, 2009 at 2:30 pmIf it’s too tough for Baucus, then he should resign his post.
Screw him, and screw the repiggies. These folks are the enemies of decency.
Health care is not a privilege reserved for the wealthy.
Neither is housing.
Screw the repiggies and the evangelical trash who are so self-centered, selfish
August 19th, 2009 at 2:35 pmand dismissive.
“agitators, whose sole goal was to intimidate, disrupt and not let any meaningful conversation go on.”
Weird. That also describes lobberers.
August 19th, 2009 at 2:35 pmMax Baucus seems disconnected from the real world. Does he realize that nearly 100 million Americans suffer because they can’t afford decent health care coverage? Does he even give a damn?
August 19th, 2009 at 2:38 pmMakes you have a lot of confidence is our leaders, with all their smarts…
…well, not so much.
August 19th, 2009 at 2:39 pmMagic light boxes
August 19th, 2009 at 2:40 pmReveal how others see you
Damn those Yoo Hoo Tubes
The Baucus Caucus = Party of None
This complete nonsense about ‘need’ for health care reform reminds me of something the great Pete Seeger wrote in 1969…
THE TORN FLAG
At midnight in a flaming angry town
I saw my country’s flag lying torn upon the ground.
I ran in and dodged among the crowd,
And scooped it up, and scampered out to safety.
And then I took this striped old piece of cloth
And tried my best to wash the garbage off.
But I found it had been used for wrapping lies.
It smelled and stank and attracted all the flies.
While I was feverishly at my task,
I heard a husky voice that seemed to ask:
“Do you think you could change me just a bit?
Betsy Ross did her best, but she made a few mistakes.
My blue is good, the color of the sky.
The stars are good for ideals, oh, so high.
Seven stripes of red are strong to meet all danger;
But those white stripes: they, they need some changing.
I need also some stripes of deep, rich brown,
And some of tan and black, then all around
A border of God’s gracious green would look good there.
Maybe you should slant the stripes, then I’d not be so square.”
I woke and said, “What a ridiculous story.
August 19th, 2009 at 2:41 pmDon’t let anybody say I suggested tampering with Old Glory.”
But tonight it’s near midnight, and in another flaming town
Once again I hear my country’s flag lies torn upon the ground.
he posited that the agitators were paid and probably from out of state. (“I could just sense it,” he said.)
WTF? He’s got super mind-reading powers like our trolls? “My spidey sense was tingling,” he said.
It’s kind of a long drive to come into Bozeman from “out of state” but maybe they were shipped in from Idaho (Zooey?).
August 19th, 2009 at 2:43 pmchiroptera toasterhead says:
I was trying to change my name to
????? ???????? but Wordpress ain’t having it. :(
August 19th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Those Nazis!
August 19th, 2009 at 2:44 pmIf the Senator was refering to people with digital cameras that are planning to upload what they record onto youtube he may have coined a new term.
Either that or he’s going to discover he’s fallen into a stupid pit.
August 19th, 2009 at 2:48 pmgummble-bee-itch says:
It’s kind of a long drive to come into Bozeman from “out of state” but maybe they were shipped in from Idaho (Zooey?).
August 19th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Well, I can pass for a person from Montana! And I was out of town yesterday….but I wasn’t in Bozeman — and neither was my YouTube!
You can’t prove anything!
August 19th, 2009 at 2:49 pmOne would have assumed after McCain’s drubbing last year over his lack of education about technology less than 30 years old, that these politicians would have at least had their staffers write down a list of words and definitions. You know, so they wouldn’t sound so painfully out-of-touch with the 21st century.
August 19th, 2009 at 2:49 pmSo there’s another thing that the Blue Dogs have in common with their kindred spirits from the right. Politics as usual, payola from corporate America, obstruction and cries for attention. They are truly cut of the same cloth, eh? They have spent decades relying on their control of their message (read: lies). The interwebs come along and suddenly the world has instantaneous access to their “spin” and outright bullshit. Wake up Baucus, if you want to call yourself a Democrat then start behaving like one you fool. You and your Blue Dog buddies are hijacking legislation so you can line your pockets and you are fooling noone! Your small clan of DINOs will soon be extinct if you keep it up! F@cking blustering ludite.
August 19th, 2009 at 2:50 pmHis BFF must be Ted Stevens.
August 19th, 2009 at 2:58 pmDo our congress critters reflect the inteligence level of their constituency – or does the lack of constituency intelligence reflect their leaders?
Either way – thses people have no business conducting the very serious business of running the country!
August 19th, 2009 at 3:00 pmPaid and from out of state? That’s much like Senator Baucus’ health care donations.
http://stateofthedivision.blogspot.com/2009/06/lucky-max-baucus-represents-virtual.html
August 19th, 2009 at 3:05 pmHmmm, geographically, that magnetic levitation train from New Orleans to Wasilla would cut right through Montana.
Sarah, Max & Bobby on ‘The Train to Nowhere’…
August 19th, 2009 at 3:05 pmMax Baucus is an a$$hole. (”I can just sense it.”)
August 19th, 2009 at 3:28 pmI was there and I saw more people with blue teeth than you tubes…..huh? Wonder what Max was talking about….he looked high to me.
August 19th, 2009 at 3:38 pmSen. “Blue” Max Baucus, and the other Blue Dog Democrats, have already shown that they stand firmly beside the raucous No-Nothing Republicans who show up at town-hall meetings with pictures of President Obama sporting a Hitler moustache, people fronting for wealthy insurance and pharmaceutical CEOs who are completely opposed to any health care reform…unless, of course, that “reform” makes more of a profit for them.
And some “Democrats” in the Obama administration (and on Capitol Hill) wonder why liberal progressive Democrats are a little upset with these “Democrats” who seem to be siding with people out to gut health care reform, going so far as sending thugs with guns and obscene Nazi posters to town-hall meetings to intimidate instead of inform, or maybe even listen and learn something.
We liberal progressive Christian Democrats are not fooled by back-room deals cut with health care profiteers who are intent upon maintaining their profit margins at the expense of ordinary U.S. citizens who want more health care coverage at lower costs for themselves and their children. Single-payer would take care of this. So would the Public Option as long as it remains a viable and vigorous Public Option, not watered down.
So, we know who Sen. “Blue” Max Baucus, and other Blue Dog Democrats, in both the White House and on Capitol Hill, (and all the Republicans) really represent, and it’s not all their constituents that are demanding expanded health care coverage at lower costs NOW, which will be true health care reform, not some insurance and pharmaceutical company CEO-promoted abomination. These CEOs are vastly outnumbered, which explains why they are trying every trick in the book, and throwing tons of money and stinky piles of disinformation at stopping true health care reform. They’re afraid. They’re afraid that enacting true, universal health care reform, which will prove beneficial to ALL U.S. citizens, will somehow hurt them, even though in the extended families of these scared CEOs there are bound to be family members who’ve experienced horror stories in our current health care system. If you’ve noticed, scared people do crazy things.
August 19th, 2009 at 3:47 pmWait a minute. While I disagree with Baucus (I am a single-payer advocate) and while I think that Baucus is a shill, this attack is unfair.
I think that he was astonishingly patient and polite in the face of enormous rudeness by tea baggers. Watch the video. He handled the situation pretty well.
August 19th, 2009 at 3:53 pmDavidHart says:
I think that he was astonishingly patient and polite in the face of enormous rudeness by tea baggers. Watch the video. He handled the situation pretty well.
August 19th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Yes, he did. And if Baucus were actually interested in real health care reform, it might mean something.
August 19th, 2009 at 4:02 pm“TPM has a video of Baucus’ confrontation with protesters.”
God, Baucus was pathetic and feeding nothing but bull. And this man is on the Senate committee for healthcare reform? Really scary especially viewing the video.
The crazies armed themselves with YouTubes… lol
August 19th, 2009 at 4:34 pmWhy does he care if they are from out of state. When he is making decisions on something that affects all Americans, then all Americans have the right to let Baucus know what they think about him.
It is so disheartening that Senators from states with so few people can have such a large influence over legislation that affects everyone in this country.
August 19th, 2009 at 4:50 pmO/T slightly – Oh, to see these all billboards over the country:
http://www.usaction.org/bluntbillboard/
August 19th, 2009 at 5:01 pmIn the video someone told him “I just hope that the best health care system in the world is not weakened or destroyed.”
Someone should tell that idiot that France’s health care system is in no danger from this legislation.
August 19th, 2009 at 5:15 pmWTF? Oh, well, he’s an old fart. Has at least a 2 year start over me for senility, so I guess it’s OK if he can’t remember the word “camera” or if he’s having problems with them intertubes and youalltubes. Do NOT, under any circumstances ask the Senator about Twitter, although, under the right circumstances he might say something funny about twits.
I think the Senate should change it’s rules for the next Congress. I don’t have a problem with Senators getting committee chairmanships on the basis of seniority. It isn’t the smartest game in town, but it’s fair enough in general. Max Baucus though is almost the perfect argument against seniority. His state represents just a bit more than two tenths of one percent of the nation’s population and here he is, in charge of a committee that can block, is blocking, health care and health care insurance reform for over three hundred million people. So the rule I would institute is that Senators take committee chairmanships by seniority, but the committees get ranked by budget quantity, with the small state senior senators getting the small budget committees and the large state senators getting the committees with substantial chunks of the budget. I’d say do it right now and push Max off to something else, but rules changes of that sort are never inflicted on the sitting Congress; it’s always saved for the next one up.
August 19th, 2009 at 6:36 pm1. PatrioticLiberalChristian sez:…
That’s absolutely great. Wish I’d thought of it. Whine rack, indeed.
(snickers while slinking off to another thread)
August 19th, 2009 at 6:39 pm9. NutWrench says: It’s a series of tubes!
Dang it, nutwrench, from that pitcher in the lead post which was prolly taken with one of them youalltube gizmos, it’s as obvious as the nose on your face that it’s a parallel of tubes, not a series.
August 19th, 2009 at 6:44 pm” There were a couple of people in the crowd “with YouTubes,” Mr. Baucus added (meaning cameras), and he posited that the agitators were paid and probably from out of state. (“I could just sense it,” he said.)
After all, they were putting complete sentances together and they weren’t screaming at me! Also, they were not wearing flannel which was a dead give away.
August 20th, 2009 at 2:40 pm