Max Baucus Returns, Part 5

Via Bob Cesca, Max Baucus has seen the light and has become a believer. Hallelujah!

U.S. Senator Max Baucus has finally broken his silence regarding his personal position on including a public option in health care reform legislation. Last Monday night (8/17), in an unprecedented conference call to Montana Democratic central committee chairs, the powerful leader of the Senate Finance Committee told his strongest supporters that he supported a public option.

While discussing the obstacles to getting a public option through the Senate, he assured his forty listeners, "I want a public option too!"

The conference call was groundbreaking in that none of the recipients could ever remember this kind of call ever happening before. The teleconference was set up seemingly in reaction to rising discontent among the local Democratic leaders with the Senator's failure to take a clear position on the issue.

The discussion, which became contentious and rancorous at times, also touched upon the wisdom of creating insurance cooperatives as an alternative to a public option. When several of the county chairs objected, commenting that they did not trust the health insurance companies to police themselves and limit their outrageous corporate profits, Baucus commented, "Neither do I."

As Cesca notes, perhaps Sen. Baucus' increasingly lousy poll numbers in Montana on health care have prompted this Come To Jesus moment.

The poll, however, showed that 49 percent of Republicans approved of the senator's actions on health care, while 38 percent disapproved. Independents were split, with 41 percent approving, and 42 percent disapproving – though in an apparently anomalous response to a separate question, 27 percent of independents said they would be less likely to vote for Baucus if he approved a public option, nearly twice as many as the 15 percent who said they would be more likely to vote for him if opposed it.

Considering Baucus has higher numbers among Montana Republicans than Democrats on health care right now (34% approve, 55% disapprove compared to the Republican numbers of 49-38) means he's very, very vulnerable on this issue and more importantly he's finally figured out which side he's on.