The Nation: K Street's Favorite Democrat = Max Baucus

by: Headwaters

Thu Mar 01, 2007 at 15:05:24 PM MST

In October 2005 Republican lobbyist Leo Giacometto hosted a NASCAR Fundraiser in Georgia. For $2,500 a pop donors received breakfast at the Ritz-Carlton and a day at Atlanta's famed Motor Speedway. Giacometto, a former chief of staff to Montana GOP Senator Conrad Burns--disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff's favorite senator--has been involved in a number of tawdry political scandals, raising questions about why any elected official would want to be associated with him. But the most interesting thing about his NASCAR party was the identity of the guest of honor: not a fellow Republican but the Democratic senator from his home state, Max Baucus. To Giacometto, Baucus, the ranking Democrat on the powerful Senate Finance Committee, was not a partisan adversary but a useful and valuable ally. "I believe that he's good for what I believe in," the lobbyist told the Billings Gazette.

Today, in the aftermath of the Democratic sweep of Congress, Baucus is still one of corporate America's favorite Democrats. As chair of the Finance Committee, he counts among his friends and political supporters a Who's Who of bankers, oilmen, ranchers, pharmaceutical lobbyists and Wall Street executives. He's particularly close to Montana's sole billionaire, industrialist Dennis Washington, a major donor to the Republican Party whose business interests Baucus has promoted over the years. The business community, in turn, expresses admiration for Baucus in its usual style--by writing big checks.

But this is the kicker:

The rap on Baucus is that he has always valued his own re-election above all else. He's up again in 2008. The question is: What is he sacrificing to get there? When Democrats were in the minority, Baucus brokered the passage of two of George W. Bush's signature first-term achievements: his massive 2001 tax cuts and his 2003 Medicare prescription drug plan. He's spent the better part of the Bush presidency cutting deals with Republicans and infuriating members of his own party, voting for the war in Iraq, the energy bill, the bankruptcy bill and to confirm Supreme Court Justice John Roberts.

Not only that, but Senator Baucus seems to be getting something in return for voting against Montana.

A study last year by Public Citizen found that between 1999 and 2005 Baucus, along with former Senate majority leader Bill Frist, took in the most special-interest money of any senator. He tops the list of recipients from business PACs. And only three senators have more former staffers working as lobbyists on K Street (at least two dozen in Baucus's case). Now that he's chairman, "former aides of Baucus, in particular, have been in demand on K Street by companies that hope to limit damage to their business interests," reports Congressional Quarterly.

On the heels of the Montana Senate's vote of no confidence in the Baucus plan to continue Fast-Track it appears that opposition to selling out is not just coming from Montana, but is national.