Baucus Video: Baucus Spokesman Calls Drunk Accusations ‘Slander’

I have received more than a dozen e-mails from readers since Sunday that include a link to a YouTube video of Montana Democratic Sen. Max Baucus speaking on the Senate floor. In it, Baucus is railing against Republicans for “lacking courage” to pass a bipartisan piece of health care legislation, but that’s not why it has gone viral.

Several conservative Web sites, including the influential Drudge Report, have linked to the clip and either implied, or flat out accused, Baucus of being drunk on Dec. 22 when he spoke in support of the health-care bill that passed on Christmas Eve.

Posted by an anonymous person under the name, "SocialistsSteal," the video has been viewed about 177,000 times as of this morning. And Baucus’ camp has denied the accusations to the Great Falls Tribune's Washington Bureau:

"Unfortunately, those who want to kill any meaningful reform turned it into an unfounded, untrue, personal-smear Internet rumor. This is beyond the pale, and this type of gutter politics has no place in the public sphere," Baucus spokesman Tyler Matsdorf said. “It is this type of slander that makes Montanans, and Americans, disgusted with the politics as usual in Washington. And what is even more sad is that such a personal attack would be given any validity at all, let alone being elevated to the status of 'news'."

I have watched the video, and really don't see it. Baucus does repeat himself and stumbles over words, but, if you have ever met him, you know that he’s not the most gifted orator in the Senate – not by a long shot. In fact, the five-minute speech is one of the longest-running remarks I've ever heard him make, and possibly the most impassioned. But the fact that Baucus can level criticism at Republicans, and have the reply be an accusation of drunkenness, does demonstrate how low the level of discourse has sunk in the Senate.

Either way, it’s been a rough month for Montana’s senior senator. He was recently panned for recommending his girlfriend Melodee Hanes for a U.S. attorney post – criticism that I think has a lot more merit than the following: