Former Max Baucus aide and current deputy chief of staff to President Barack Obama, Jim Messina received a fairly glowing profile in The Washington Post this weekend. Portrayed as Obama’s low-profile fixer, the piece shores up Messina’s reputation as one of the most quietly effective operators in Washington D.C., regardless of how the Obama administration puffs up its “outsider” status.
From a Montana standpoint, what I found most interesting about the piece was how Messina was dispatched to see Baucus when Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s nomination looked imperiled after his tax problems surfaced. Messina and Baucus’s close relationship appears to have eased the way somewhat toward Geithner’s confirmation:
When vetters learned that Geithner had not fully paid his taxes — but before the news became public — Obama dispatched Messina to see Baucus, his former boss, who was in charge of the Treasury secretary’s confirmation process. Obama wanted to ensure that the tax issue would not be an impediment to confirmation.
Messina brought the ultimate insider’s advantage to the table as he negotiated Geithner’s fate: He and Baucus are such close friends that they describe it as a “father-son” relationship. Every two weeks, they meet for dinner and a glass of wine at Bistro Bis, an upscale restaurant in the Hotel George on Capitol Hill. But their meeting on Geithner put them on different sides. Ultimately, Geithner was approved — in no small part because he had backing from Baucus.
“He called me afterwards and said, ‘Wasn’t that a little weird?’ because we were on opposite sides of the table,’ ” Messina said of his meeting with Baucus, Geithner and the ranking Republican on the Finance Committee, Sen. Charles E. Grassley (Iowa). “Max is like my father. I’m closer to Max than I am almost anyone.”