So, which respectable media outlets actually ran with the completely baseless, Drudge-driven Max Baucus was drunk smear? I count the Los Angeles Times (whose
This seems like a slow-news-week joke story to most people, but I find it truly bizarre that this “story” took off. It’s like one of those photos that catches a celebrity at a bad angle and is run in the National Enquirer as proof that So-and-So has ballooned to 200 pounds. Actually, it’s sillier than that, because Baucus talks like this all the time. Here’s a December 2008 interview with Baucus in which he discusses “mil’income tax cuts.”
And here’s a lengthy interview in which he describes someone he “saw’er in person yest’day.”
My point is that Baucus mumbles occasionally. OK, a lot. Accusing him of being drunk on the job, without evidence, is shameful, and I’m flabbergasted at the number of journalists who are doing it.