Montana’s Senator Max Baucus is Mr. Health Care

Among Democrats, Max Baucus http://baucus.senate.gov/is known mostly for his apostasies. So crucial was the Montana Senator to passing George W. Bush’s tax cuts in 2001 that he was rewarded with a prime spot at the signing ceremony in the White House East Room. Two years later, it was Baucus who helped Republicans pass a pharmaceutical-industry-friendly Medicare prescription-drug bill, even as his party’s congressional leadership was shut out of the process.

It is understandable, then, that when Democrats took back control of the White House, many in the party were more than a little dismayed about Baucus’ position at the helm of the Senate Finance Committee — the legislative linchpin for just about everything that Barack Obama hopes to accomplish, from rewriting the tax code to curbing global warming.

By Karen Tumulty

Full Story: http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1887719,00.html