The left is going after Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), saying his recent remarks in a profile piece on Obama Campaign Manager Jim Messina are proof that the Senator was directly behind “one of the most homophobic ads in history” and that the senator possibly committed a crime.
David Sirota, a liberal columnist, Denver radio host, and close ally to Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D-MT) wrote this at Salon.com.
In their quest to promote themselves as political tough guys, did Sen. Max Baucus and President Obama’s campaign manager Jim Messina just admit to both crafting one of the most homophobic ads in American history and possibly committing a crime? That’s the big question after new revelations buried in this week’s fluffy Businessweek profile of Messina.
To protect himself politically and legally, Baucus in 2002 insisted he knew nothing about — and had nothing to do with — the ad. Now in 2012, in his eagerness to promote his pal Messina, Baucus admits that, at minimum, he and Messina knew all about the ad — indeed, Businessweek explicitly credits Messina with being the architect of the ad, citing it as proof that he “will go a long way to win.” Likewise, Baucus now admits that he wasn’t unaware of the spot — on the contrary, he explicitly told his staff he “loved it.”
Here’s a link to the original bio piece on Messina in Bloomberg Business Week.
In the meantime, Joshua Green, the author of the messina bio piece in Business Week, followed up with former Montana Republican State Sen. Mike Taylor. Taylor was the subject of the Baucus hairdresser attack ad during his US Senate race against Baucus.
Green contacted Taylor while he was in Portugal for a shooting competition. Taylor responded via e-mail to Green with this:
I found out Quickly from Messina, than there was no honor in politics,as there was in the business world. Half truths and misconception will be the rule of the day for this coming campaign based on my experience. Rather than actual voting records and positions if it follows Messina’s normal model of campaigns.
Mike Taylor
Click below to watch the Baucus campaign commercial referenced in the above links.