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Baucus Lamely Claims He Wasn't Loaded
NLPC ^ | December 29, 2009 | Peter Flaherty

Posted on 12/29/2009 10:37:55 AM PST by jazusamo

According to today’s Billings (MT) Gazette:

Sen. Max Baucus' office Monday denounced a widely viewed Internet video that suggested Baucus was drunk on the Senate floor last week, calling it an "untrue, personal smear" designed to attack Democrats’ health-care reform legislation.

"This is beyond the pale, and this type of gutter politics has no place in the public sphere," said Baucus spokesman Ty Matsdorf.

How can unedited CSPAN footage of Senate proceedings posted on YouTube comprise a “smear?” Any reasonable person viewing the clip would conclude that Baucus was drunk or had something else wrong with him. Baucus' office did not assert that he was experiencing some other problem, like fatigue or a medical condition.

The Billings Gazette, along with the Great Falls Tribune, both reported that the YouTube video was posted anonymously, as if Baucus was somehow the target of an unfair attack.  I guess they assume that their readers don’t know how YouTube or the internet work, and that CSPAN is no longer a credible source for U.S. Senate proceedings.

If these newspapers wanted to cite someone who would accuse Baucus of being drunk on the record, they should have called me.

Some Baucus defenders have theorized that he was just tired from putting in all the long hours on health care. Tired people slow down when they speak and have trouble finding the right, and sometimes obvious, word.

Fatigue is not evident in the CSPAN clip. In fact, Baucus speaks at a rapid clip, resulting in slurring of words. He also demonstrates the false bravado and jerky gesticulations that come not from lack of sleep but from alcohol.

By claiming a “smear” and a “slander,” we think Baucus protests too much. It is also hard to take seriously anything said by his spokesman Ty Matsdorf . This is the same staffer who dutifully claimed that Melodee Hanes, Baucus’ current live-in girlfriend, was acting in her “official capacity” as a Senate staffer when she met with a divorce lawyer to plan Baucus’ divorce months before Baucus had even discussed divorce with his wife.

Related:

Max Baucus Drunk During Health Care Debate

Baucus’ Girlfriend Planned His Divorce; Story Contradicted of Her Withdrawal from U.S. Attorney Consideration

Ex-Chief of Staff Accused Max Baucus of Sexual Harassment

Baucus Statement Doesn’t Pass the Laugh Test



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Government
KEYWORDS: baucus
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To: Markos33

wasn’t that a song years ago “message in a bottle” naaaaaaahhhhhh


21 posted on 12/29/2009 11:00:39 AM PST by rstark56
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To: jazusamo

From Wikipedia - “the Greek god of wine and intoxication, known as Bacchus to Romans”


22 posted on 12/29/2009 11:01:05 AM PST by BIG_CARBON_FOOT_PRINT
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To: BIG_CARBON_FOOT_PRINT

classic...


23 posted on 12/29/2009 11:02:15 AM PST by surfer (To err is human, to really foul things up takes a Democrat!)
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To: jazusamo

You have that right. From the linked articles, the local papers are definitely in the tank for him. I love the one article that matter-of-factly states that Baucus speaks like this all the time and that he wasn’t slurring his words. I guess people can’t judge for themselves and need reporters to interpret for them.


24 posted on 12/29/2009 11:02:49 AM PST by Opinionated Blowhard
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To: jazusamo
Sen. Max Baucus' office Monday denounced a widely viewed Internet video that suggested Baucus was drunk on the Senate floor last week, calling it an "untrue, personal smear" designed to attack Democrats’ health-care reform legislation.

Toasted.

25 posted on 12/29/2009 11:03:07 AM PST by Recovering_Democrat
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To: BIG_CARBON_FOOT_PRINT; counterpunch; All
h/t to counterpunch from yesterday.


Senator Bacchus

26 posted on 12/29/2009 11:04:56 AM PST by jazusamo (But there really is no free lunch, except in the world of political rhetoric,.: Thomas Sowell)
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To: jazusamo

The question was, was he drunk or stupid. If he was not drunk that leaves stupid. Personally I’d rather plead drunk.


27 posted on 12/29/2009 11:07:14 AM PST by fish hawk (It's sad that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom. Isaac Asimov)
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To: jazusamo

I'sh was not Looooaded.

28 posted on 12/29/2009 11:10:24 AM PST by Doomonyou (Let them eat Lead. Bonus tag line: FAIL 246, Obama 0)
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To: jazusamo

When someone thinks they can fool people they are really drunk!


29 posted on 12/29/2009 11:12:34 AM PST by SWAMPSNIPER (THE SECOND AMENDMENT, A MATTER OF FACT, NOT A MATTER OF OPINION)
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To: jazusamo

On a Slightly related note...

I would like to Congratulate Senator TED KENNEDY for completing his FOURTH MONTH of Continuous Sobriety.


30 posted on 12/29/2009 11:12:45 AM PST by gwilhelm56 (Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8 "Let his days be few; and let another take his office. ")
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To: BIG_CARBON_FOOT_PRINT

When gay Bacchus fills my breast,
All my cares are lull’d to rest,
Thus I sit in mind elate,
Laughing at the farce of state.

Baccus, Jove’s delightful boy,
Generous god of wine and joy,
Still exhilarates my soul
With the raptures of the bowl

== from the Odes of Anacreon at http://books.google.com/books?id=E-gSAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA190&lpg=PA190&dq=when+gay+bacchus+fills+my+breast&source=bl&ots=2uf4X83nsz&sig=SPIkwxPZ0ecr7Nw5qYS1sa-fqoI&hl=en&ei=h1M6S4jTNtWtlAeD6NH8Bw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CBQQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=&f=false


31 posted on 12/29/2009 11:13:35 AM PST by duckworth (Perhaps instant karma's going to get you. Perhaps not.)
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To: Doomonyou

**I’sh was not Looooaded.**

To own a jacket like that??? Yes, sir you are...

love that pic


32 posted on 12/29/2009 11:14:44 AM PST by gwilhelm56 (Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8 "Let his days be few; and let another take his office. ")
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To: jazusamo
Baucus Lamely Claims He Wasn't Loaded

Translation: I could have swilled down at least three or four more 'tini's before I fall over. Us "Pros" know how to handle it. I learned from one of the best, a Kennedy.

33 posted on 12/29/2009 11:15:17 AM PST by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannolis. Take it to the Mattress.")
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To: jazusamo
Maybe old Max was just honoring his dead, drunk, and stupid friend from Mass. Or was trying to get appointed to the chairmanship of the Senate Lush Committee. A seat vacated when Max's drunk and stupid friend from Mass. dropped dead.
34 posted on 12/29/2009 11:15:32 AM PST by skully (Islamofascists love death more then life, PC cowards love diversity more then life. We're so F'd!!!)
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To: Doomonyou

Foster Brooks was really funny. May he RIP.


35 posted on 12/29/2009 11:16:56 AM PST by jazusamo (But there really is no free lunch, except in the world of political rhetoric,.: Thomas Sowell)
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To: jazusamo

He may cont to think that he would have been better off to claim that thruout all the ‘healthcare debate’ that he WAS drunk.

It might be the only excuse he will ever have for supporting this obscene mess.


36 posted on 12/29/2009 11:17:20 AM PST by ridesthemiles
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To: skully

Baucus to voters: “Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?”


37 posted on 12/29/2009 11:18:17 AM PST by liberlog
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To: jazusamo

Senator Max Baucus, seated, with staff members, from left, Brianne Rogers, Paul Wilkins, Jim Messina and Ty Matsdorf, at a late dinner Friday - 2006

Ty Matsdorf on right, with glasses

38 posted on 12/29/2009 11:19:22 AM PST by kcvl
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To: Opinionated Blowhard
I love the one article that matter-of-factly states that Baucus speaks like this all the time....

Maybe all Libtards sound like this if we were to actually listen to them.

I wouldn't know, I'm just theorizing here.

39 posted on 12/29/2009 11:21:28 AM PST by skully (Islamofascists love death more then life, PC cowards love diversity more then life. We're so F'd!!!)
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To: skully

Yeah, I guess the several times I’ve seen him on C-Span he really was drunk because he wasn’t speaking like that. lol


40 posted on 12/29/2009 11:23:43 AM PST by jazusamo (But there really is no free lunch, except in the world of political rhetoric,.: Thomas Sowell)
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