Who Has Access To Max Baucus?
Max Baucus is the nexus of dozens, even hundreds of interests in the health-care bill. In Congress since 1975, he’s learned how to build relationships and how to leverage them. Baucus described his methods last spring, in a talk hosted by the Kaiser Family Foundation. His words came tumbling out in bursts and sentence fragments, as they often do: “Lots of meetings with outside groups, lots of on-the-phone, a couple [or] three times a day with groups, consumer groups, with labor, with industry groups, and finding out, ‘Gee, what do you think about this? What do you think about that?’ And just trying to put the pieces together.” He said he uses his leverage to spur interest groups into debate rather than conflict. “Hold off judgment. Suspend judgment at least for 15 minutes,” Baucus said. “Try to see if there’s a way to get to yes. Think about it. There might be a positive angle here.” But the relationships nurtured by Baucus go two ways. Every one of those groups has its own agenda firs
