Max Baucus Denies Being Blotto on Senate Floor. Take Poll and Tell Us What You Think

Yesterday we posted the video below, of Senator Max Baucus is making a weird rant on the Senate Floor. The Montana Senator is slurring his words and it seems as if he delivered this impassioned speech on the Senate floor a bit "Pickled."

If you you can't see the video click here





Today, Tyler Matsdorf, spokesman for the Baucus, released the following denial:

"When his friend of 30 years Ted Kennedy, with whom he had fought so hard to provide health care to children, was being used as a cheap foil to oppose health care reform, Senator Baucus gave a passionate defense. 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. 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".

On Sunday, former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) wrote "breathalyser for members of congress"on his Facebook wall, along with a video clip of the Baucus speech from YouTube entitled "Senator Max Baucus Drunk / Intoxicated on Senate Floor - Shouts Down Wicker."

After his initial posting about Baucus, Foley updated his wall with: "This is the senator that hired his staffer and then took her on trips . . . and divorced his wife . . . and they had me run out of town". On Monday, Foley added: "My facebook page just hit the top of Drudge (Report)."

"DRUNK WITH POWER? TOP DEM SLURS ON SENATE FLOOR ..." reads the Drudge Report headline.

Newsbusters.org wrote"How can one explain this incredibly bizarre performance by Max Baucus on the Senate floor? Was Baucus so intoxicated by the sound of his own voice that he went off the deep end? Or perhaps he was so drunk with power over shaping the Senate health care bill that it explains his strange rant."

Was Baucus drunk? I wasn't there to smell his breath. Some are defending the Senator saying he usually slurs his words. But that doesn't cover the fact that is oratory is sometimes rambling and incoherent. The SF Chronicle Blogger Zennie Abraham vehemently says, the fact is that Max Baucus was not drunk and correct in his attack against Republicans who did not break ranks to join Democrats in backing Health Care Reform.

Senator Max Baucus (D - Montana) had launched a spirited debate against Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker on Heath Care Reform. In the process, his tired, angry, articulate tirade was such that online Conservatives activists elected to make a charge that Max Baucus was drunk.

If I had to bet money, I would hope that the Senator had a designated driver take him home that day, he sure looks drunk. But what do you think? On the left hand column is a poll, check the box you prefer, was Max Baucus Drunk on the Senate Floor?