About Face (“Meanwhile in the Senate, everyone is waiting on...)

Quote
"Meanwhile in the Senate, everyone is waiting on Max Baucus of Montana. Nothing is going to happen on health care without the approval of Baucus, whose vast authority stems from the fact that he speaks for both the Senate Finance Committee and a state that contains three-tenths of one percent of the country’s population."

I didn’t know quite what to think of yesterday’s New York Times Op Ed piece. Thought I don’t know her, Gail Collins and I have several things in common, mainly that we both serve on editorial boards for our respective newspapers. But I can’t help but get the feeling that based on her quote above that she may think less of my role at the Bozeman Chronicle. Afterall, my newspaper is located in the third largest city in a state with three-tenths of one percent of the country’s population.

I’d like to point out that Ms. Collins and I commonly live by the same constitution whose Founding Fathers purposefully skewed political power to favor rural America by giving all states equal representation in the Senate. So why is she angling on Montana’s lack of population? It’s a non-issue and completely irrelevant in these matters. It’s funny, but is politcally ignorant. Which should be surprising coming from a newspaper serving 6% of the entire US population.

What’s uncommon between us is that I don’t have a chip on my shoulder about Senators from highly populated urban areas who assert their influence for policy making. Another point of difference is that that with one phone call, our editorial board can call Baucus’ office and schedule a heart-to-heart on national health care policy in a manner of minutes. We’ll be sitting down with him in a few weeks while everyone else “waits”.

Mmm… Maybe I getting a little chip on my shoulder about those big city types…