Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.
Posted on 12/29/2009 10:37:55 AM PST by 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.
"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
**Ooops. Did I get it reversed?**
Wow ... and just what did YOU HAVE for Lunch???
Did anyone tell Max that thing he was trying to brush off his should later was the FLOOR!
Actually, I haven’t had lunch as yet (it’s not lunch time here). I guess I’ll need to go back and re-read the original posts - I must have missed something.
Yep, it was suppose to be you owing skully a keyboard (or, perhaps just a cup of coffee). I’ve been on the computer too long today - the eyes are not working right.
LOL...
12. Thou shalt not FReep before COFFEE!!
Yes, one cup was not nearly enough. LOL.
ROFL!
I forgot about that!
What a silly man. He should have kept his mouth shut. Claiming he wasn't drunk opens up a whole new realm of possibilities (Stupid, high, sick..etc.).
He might as well have stated, “Yes, I’ve stopped beating my wife”.
Some Republican Senator should bring a breathilizer to the Senate. OH, Senator, BLOW this will you?
Senator Bacchus and his staff are miscalculating here. As has been pointed out, if he was not impaired by drink than this must be his normal state of impairment. He can use the excuse, “Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes,” but this will leave people thinking, “what a knucklehead.” Better to twist the truth and say, “I didn’t realize that I had passed my limit.” He has lowered the already low esteem of the U.S. Senate.
Baucus may be reaching the end of the political trail. He has been around long enough to have become thoroughly corrupted in the Washington, D.C. cesspool. I think it was significant that when he stood before the world to attempt to explain how wonderful his health care reform Bill was he stood alone.
Why? I don’t know, but it seemed very strange because the Democratic Party leadership was fighting hard to get this kind of legislation passed. There has been grumbling in Montana for years about Baucus being out of touch with Montanans.
In that video he certainly sounded and looked as though he was drunk. When I read this article reporting the Baucus aide claiming that this was an unfair political attack I was reminded of an old saying. It was something about “Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?” In this case we are asked to disbelieve our lying ears too.
Of course he wasn’t loaded, he hadn’t passed out yet!
Marijuana does NOT make one act like that.
Well said...I believe it’s plain to anyone, even Dems seeing that video he’d had too much to drink. Denials on his part and spinning by the media will only make it worse for him.
If Montanans already believe he’s out of touch with them this could be the incident that finishes him.
Yeah, that’s the ticket!!
Great post
Pictures of themselves adorning the walls speaks volumes
” Baucus was drunk on the Senate floor last week”
Let’s get our geography right. He was drunk wobbling on the senate floor.
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