Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) is the target of left wing groups who accuse him of putting insurance company interests ahead of the public’s.

From the Politico

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) may have brought Democrats as close as they have been in years to enacting health care reform, but grass-roots progressives consider him their No. 1 target.

Democracy for America and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee conducted a four-day, online poll of their members, and with about 64,000 votes cast, Baucus beat seven other Democratic senators as the lawmaker whose arm is most in need of twisting over health care reform. 

And so on Wednesday, an ad will begin airing in Montana charging Baucus with choosing monied interests over average voters who want the public insurance option.

“It is really important that Max Baucus recognizes what is at stake here,” said Charles Chamberlain, political director of Democracy for America. “We consider the public option the core of any real reform here. We are going to make sure voters in Montana know Baucus is standing with insurance companies, rather than with Barack Obama.”

The push by Democracy for America and PCCC is the latest escalation in the Democrat versus Democrat ad wars over health care reform. With all but a handful of Republicans opposed to President Barack Obama’s plan, advocacy groups have spent their money almost entirely targeting wayward and undecided Democrats.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) popped off last week on the intraparty persuasion efforts, saying, “It’s a waste of money to have Democrats running ads against Democrats.”

Obama, in a conference call earlier this month with Reid and other congressional leaders, stressed the importance of minimizing critical ads that could undermine momentum, particularly among liberal groups, and indicated that he was working to curtail them.

But even the president’s political operation, Organizing for America, couldn’t resist a TV campaign aimed at lassoing members of his own party. The group stepped up its effort last week, putting up an ad in more than a dozen states targeting swing Senate and House members, including three Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

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About the author

Don Irvine
Don Irvine is Chairman of Accuracy in Media. He is active on Facebook and Twitter. You can follow him @donirvine to read his latest thoughts.

2 Comments for Baucus Targeted by Left on Health Care Stance

JayMagoo

With Baucus it’s not a Liberal vs. conservative issue.  Baucus is accepting millions of dollars from insurance lobbyists and insurance companies, and as a result he has indicated he will vote against the public option. Forget that 70 percent of all voters want the public option to get rid of the death grip the insurance industry has on health care, Baucus is responding to the money, the junkets, the freebies, that the Insurance Companies are giving to him. In any other culture it would be called bribery, but in politics of today, big corporations making contributions to politicians to get their programs enacted is called “A First Amendment Right.”  In the case of Senator Baucus, I call it bribery.  He’s selling us out.

TK

Statement from article:

“… choosing monied interests over average voters …”

Isn’t that what politics, particularly in the U.S. today, is all about?

These guys have wet dreams about the exercise of power – and this guy is already dribbling at the thought that he might be able to have people on all sides of the issue wanting to stroke him death!

Statement from Post 1;

“… Forget that 70 percent of all voters want the public option to get rid of the death grip the insurance industry has on health care …”

Ain’t that the truth!

But – the rightwing partisans on this forum will resist admitting to that, too – because, as they’ll parrot, “the survey was undoubtedly flawed”!