"Democrat Max Baucus rules out 7th Senate term; Becomes sixth in party to call it quits, 8th overall" by David Espo and Matt Gouras | Associated Press, April 24, 2013
WASHINGTON — Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana announced plans Tuesday to retire at the end of his term after a career of enormous power and notable independence, producing both collaboration and conflict with fellow Democrats on major tax and health care legislation.
‘‘I don’t want to die here with my boots on. There is life beyond Congress,’’ the 71-year-old Baucus said in a telephone interview.
He became the eighth senator to announce retirement plans for 2014, and the sixth Democrat. One public poll recently suggested he would have faced a difficult challenge if he had sought a seventh term.
Republicans must gain six seats in 2014 to win a majority, and they said the retirement enhanced their prospects.
Yet Democrats were encouraged when the former Democratic governor, Brian Schweitzer, who recently stepped down after two terms, swiftly expressed interest in the race.
In a brief statement, President Obama said Baucus ‘‘has been a leader on a broad range of issues that touch the lives of Americans across the country.’’
Senator Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican and Baucus’s frequent legislative partner, was complimentary, too. ‘‘We ran the Finance Committee for 10 years together, and every bill except for three or four was bipartisan,’’ he said in a statement....
Yeah, thanks, Chuck.
Many Democrats were unhappy when he worked with Republicans to enact the tax cuts that President George W. Bush won in 2001.
And then again in 2004 when Congress pushed through a GOP plan to create a new prescription drug benefit under Medicare, a measure that most Democrats opposed as a giveaway to the large drug companies.
Baucus stood with fellow Democrats in 2005 when Bush proposed legislation to partially privatize Social Security, an epic battle that ended in defeat for the president’s effort.
He played a central role in the enactment of Obama’s watershed health care legislation in 2010, although some inside his party complained that precious momentum was lost while he spent months on bipartisan negotiations that ultimately proved fruitless.
More recently, Baucus has expressed opposition to Democratic proposals to use an overhaul of the tax code as a means of raising additional revenue. He was one of four members of his party to oppose the budget the leadership brought to the floor....
On other issues large and small, Baucus’s voting record reflected his rural state.
Most recently, he voted against legislation that Obama backed to expand background checks for gun purchasers.
During the debate on the budget, he was the only Democrat to vote for a proposal to reopen White House tours. Most members of his party viewed the GOP measure as an attempt to embarrass Obama, but it would also have meant more money for clearing snow from the entrances to Yellowstone National Park, a portion of which is in Montana.
Possible Republican candidates include former governor Marc Racicot; former representative Denny Rehberg, who lost to Baucus in 1996 and to Jon Tester last fall; former representative Rick Hill and Representative Steve Daines.
State Senator Champ Edmunds of Missoula and former state senator Corey Stapleton had already announced they would run against Baucus.
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Related:
"Lobbying lucrative for Senator Baucus’s ex-aides; Access to lawmaker yielded hefty tax breaks for clients" by Eric Lipton | New York Times, April 07, 2013
WASHINGTON — Restaurant chains like McDonald’s want to keep their lucrative tax credit for hiring veterans. Altria, the tobacco company, wants to cut the corporate tax rate. And Sapphire Energy, a small alternative energy company, is determined to protect a tax incentive it believes could turn algae into a popular motor fuel.
As Congress prepares to debate a rewrite of the nation’s tax code, this diverse set of businesses has at least one strategy in common: They have retained firms that employ lobbyists who are former aides to Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which will have a crucial role in shaping any legislation.
No other lawmaker on Capitol Hill has such a sizable constellation of former aides working as tax lobbyists, representing blue-chip clients that include telecommunications businesses, oil companies, retailers, and financial firms, according to an analysis by LegiStorm, an online database that tracks congressional staff members and lobbying.
At least 28 aides who worked for the Montana Democrat since he became the committee chairman in 2001 have lobbied on tax issues during the Obama administration — more than any other current member of Congress, according to the analysis of lobbying filings performed for The New York Times.
‘‘K Street is literally littered with former Baucus staffers,’’ said Jade West, an executive at a wholesalers’ trade association that relies on a former finance panel aide, Mary Burke Baker. ‘‘It opens doors that allow you to make the case.’’
Like Baker, many of those lobbyists have saved their clients millions — in some cases, billions — of dollars after Baucus backed their requests to extend certain corporate tax perks, provisions that were adopted as part of the ‘‘fiscal cliff’’ legislation in January.
Baucus aides who later became lobbyists helped financial firms save $11.2 billion in tax deferments and helped secure a $222 million tax benefit that is shared with the liquor industry.
Sean Neary, a spokesman for Baucus, said the senator had regularly rejected requests from those lobbyists for provisions benefiting their clients, like an appeal from one former aide, Pat Bousliman, now working as a wind industry lobbyist, to extend an alternative energy loan guarantee program that expired in 2011.
Baucus’s decisions are based on the merits of the policies, Neary said, not on who is advocating for them. ‘‘The fact is, oftentimes good policy can indirectly benefit someone,’’ he said. ‘‘That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done.’’
Baucus, who has spent nearly his entire professional career in Congress, declined a request for an interview. But Neary said that every action the senator takes is motivated by his commitment to voters.
It's $ickening to read this $hit.
Several veteran Capitol Hill aides said it was naive to suggest that former aides could extract special favors from their one-time bosses unless what they were pushing for had broad support. But the former aides still bring an advantage to the corporations that hire them.
‘‘It does mean you will have someone who knows how the levers of power are pushed or how to push the levers, and who can describe to you how situations are going to play out based on their years of experience,’’ said Jim Manley, a former aide to Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader. Manley now works at a Washington lobbying and communications firm, QGA Public Affairs.
In recent interviews, four former aides to Baucus said their ties to him heightened their appeal to potential clients. The link also helped justify their salaries, in some cases $500,000 or higher, more than double or triple their Capitol Hill paychecks.
Former Senate aides who become lobbyists must wait a year before they can contact Baucus or his staff on behalf of a client, according to Senate ethics rules. Staying active in their circle, one former aide said, also requires that they help Baucus’s political career, through fund-raising and other assistance.
At a gathering last month near the Capitol, Paul Wilkins, Baucus’s chief of staff, talked about the millions of dollars Baucus will need to raise for his reelection campaign next year.
‘‘It allows us to scare off opponents,’’ Wilkins told the group. ‘‘It is the basis of everything that we do. So thank you for your support and everything you have done for Senator Baucus.’’
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And he's the one that helped cut the rich tax breaks in their tax increase?
Real punch in the kidney, isn't it?
