Max Baucus’s spirited debate
MT US Senator Max Baucus has been much in the news the latter half of the year, first for wasting everyone’s time when releasing a unilaterally supported healthcare bill from his Senate Finance Committee after months of attempted brokering. Never mind Republicans and conservatives, even liberals thought it stunk.
Then in December Baucus admitted to having an affair in 2008 with staffer Melodee Hanes, with whom he took taxpayer-funded foreign junkets, gave a $14k tax-paid raise, and nominated for US Attorney.
All the negative press must have gotten to the man, who apparently downed one drink too many before taking to the Senate floor December 22 to lambaste Republicans for opposing socialized healthcare….
Baucus;s people are of course denying the accusation, according to the Billings Gazette…
Max Baucus’ office Monday denounced a widely viewed Internet video that suggested Baucus was drunk on the Senate floor last week, calling it an “untrue, personal smear” designed to attack Democrats’ health-care reform legislation.
“This is beyond the pale, and this type of gutter politics has no place in the public sphere,” said Baucus spokesman Ty Matsdorf.
Zennie62 at the San Francisco Chronicle blog also propped Baucus up…
… Baucus… had launched a spirited debate against MS 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….
So Max Baucus was right. It does take courage to support change. And Max Baucus wasn’t drunk.
It was a spirited debate all right. The only plausible explanation I can think of to otherwise explain Baucus’s behavior is that he was experiencing diabetic hypoglycemia, which can mimic inebriation. Otherwise, Baucus was clearly soused.
And it’s not funny.
WARNING: The following video, although realistic, is disturbing and violent…
[HT for Transport Accident Commission video: Fran at IL Review]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
WOW that TAC video is POWERFUL!!
I saw this on CSPAN and my immediate comment was this man’s speech is slurred.
If he had been driving a car there was enough probable cause for a cop to have Baucus going through the drills.
My first guess would be alcohol. Baucus is democRAT Senator after all.
Second choice would be drugs.
You never know Max could have mixed up his rogaine or viagra with his valium or prosac.
Baucus could have been manifesting the symptoms of mini-stroke or as some one already commented a diabetic whose sugar levels were out of the safe zone.
No doubt about the slurred speech, whatever the cause.
yor bro ken
Ken,
..or he could be channelling Ted Kennedy
Mary,
Or any or all of the above.
Definately thick tongued slurred speech we have all witnessed and some experienced at the company christmas party.
yor bro ken
Mary,
There is no prohibition that I am aware of the forbids DUI (debating under the influence)on the floor of the U. S. Senate.
Maybe they should at least install breathalyzyers that require proof of sobriety before they can cast their votes.
yor bro ken
Whoaaaaaa! I just got it.
Max’x ‘spirited’ debate.
yor bro ken
Hi Jill,
Unless Baucus is diabetic the hypoglycemia excuse won’t fly. Even if he were I would question why an aide or someone isn’t getting him a glass of orange juice. My husband has been an insulin dependent diabetic for almost 30 years and I have never seen him get to this point, and I’ve seen countless episodes of hypoglycemia.
Let’s face it, if this was Mitch McConnell the media would be having a field day.
Mary, I know, it’s way way unlikely. Just trying to cover all the bases.
Jill,
I like that “spirited” debate. Maybe he had a visit with the spirit of “Old Granddad”.
You can bet the media will try that hypoglycemia trick. Like you, I agree it just doesn’t wash.
Oh, maybe he’s tired, that’s another one…
That TAC video is incredibly powerful – it had me getting nauseous. Unfortunately, our kids are getting numb even to such imagery with games like Grand Theft Auto IV.
Abortion does the same thing to lives – destroys children and leaves wreckage, but does it in a slo-mo way so the impacts are not as visceral.
It seems being responsible is not something we care very much about any more.
Hey Max
I have a question. If the “system” did such a fine job of reporting a terrorist, what can we expect for our fine government to track the healthcare files for 215 million of us?
I think Max spent a little time with Jack Daniels and his Old Grandad.
enjoying the back and forth between Mary and Ken…
yep… Maximilian Bacchus was fun to watch
Maybe there should be a *graphic* warning of some sort on that TAC video?
A close friend of mine was just in a terrible car accident that by all rights should have killed her – she’s in a halo brace now and will be for some time, some broken vertebrae etc. It was difficult for me to see images of people being injured like that, because all I could picture was her being thrown about in the same manner; and I think if she had stumbled upon it not knowing what it was (naturally she spends quite a bit of her time reading blogs and surfing the web now) it probably would have really upset her, given that she struggles to even look at pictures of cars the same model as hers was.
I’m guessing that TAC isn’t based in the US? If it had been MADD or something then people could reasonably assume the contents of the video by the title.
I’m not saying the video isn’t worth watching – just that maybe some people might benefit from a heads-up as to what it is.
I don’t think he was drunk. I listened to the voice as I was surfing elsewhere, and it seemed to me as though he was rambling ALOT, and stuttered, but I guess I haven’t heard him speak enough to tell. However, I have heard quite a few drunks try to express their thoughts in my days, and it sounds much different than this. To me, at least, it sounded as though he was high on a stimulant, not alcohol. His speech was way too fast for a drunk.
Chris,
In regards to your December 29, 2009 1:55 PM post, yes, children are more numb to violence because of video games, but when they are in high school and know someone who died in a car wreck, or witnessed one themselves, reality tends to slap them hard in the face. Children tend to think that they are invincible. As they age, they realize they are not and videos like the one Jill posted hit home. No worries…they will eventually understand the difference between fiction and reality.
Alexandra,
You seriously didn’t see the crashes coming?
btw, I’m sorry about your friend & pray that she makes a speedy recovery!
Alexandra… warning added…
The biggest irony with the TAC ads here in Victoria is that people here understand the relevance of showing the full horror of road accidents, but yet they pass draconian abortion laws and lambast pro-life groups for daring to show one static image of abortion.
When authorities actually stop acting like hypocrites about the value of life, I will have more respect for the TAC ads. They act like just over 300 killed per year is still a problem. Yes, it is – but what does that make more than that a week in defenceless children?
Yeah, was that Ted Kennedy? This guy needs to hang it up after hanging one on.
You seriously didn’t see the crashes coming?
btw, I’m sorry about your friend & pray that she makes a speedy recovery!
Marie, thanks for your concern about my friend. She’s struggling a lot right now and is extremely depressed, borderline suicidal.
After watching the video for a bit it’s obvious that the people driving drunk will get into accidents – what is not obvious is the fairly graphic nature in which those accidents will be portrayed. That’s all. Not a huge deal but I thought that maybe it deserved a mention since a heads-up costs nothing and hurts no one. :)
Oh and Jill I hope it didn’t seem like I was demanding a warning or anything – just musing out loud. When my dad was teaching me how to back a truck up to a loading dock, I said, “I can’t get it straight!” He stopped me and said, “Pulling forward is free.” Compared, obviously, to the cost of repairing the truck, whatever you hit, etc if you just keep backing up even though you’re not set up right. The tendency of most people (or at least most people like me) is to focus on the fact that you shouldn’t NEED to pull forward and start again – but the focus should be on what you have to lose by starting over versus what you have to lose by NOT starting over.
I thought that was a good point and I try to apply it to my less spatial-relations-related, more personal actions as well. What is lost, what is gained. eh whatever I’m not making sense.
Alexandra,
I join Marie in sympathy and support for your friend. She’s suicidal? Please tell me she isn’t paralyzed or disabled in some way. Suicidal wishes are common when patients must first confront disability and time, love, and family and friend’s support is usually the best healer. Also as patients develop more independence through therapy, etc.
Please Alexandra, keep us posted.
Thanks, Mary. She was struggling with depression before the accident, so this has just really compounded things. Her car ended up flipping twice, stopping just short of a canal – she was unconscious by the time the car stopped, but she hung upside-down for a while, and that visual image – her, blacked out, hanging by her seatbelt, neck broken – is really haunting her.
Fortunately she should make a full physical recovery, it looks like. She broke or fractured the first six vertebrae on her upper spine, had a brain hemorrhage, and is having difficulty using her right arm a month after the accident so there is probably something wrong there. But they say everything looks very lucky. She’s worried that the halo brace will leave scars on her forehead where it’s screwed in, but that’s a very minor concern, in the scheme of things.
She is obviously on pain medication and she’s struggling to be responsible with it, not overdose etc. But she’s very depressed. Has not showered in a month and can’t for two more – little things like that can really compound depression. She’s constantly in pain. Is now struggling with kidney stones for the second time since the accident – not sure if that’s related to it or not but she never had them before. etc. Her father was mildly abusive to her in adolescence, sexually, and now she is stuck in her parents’ house in early adulthood, confined by her own injuries – she feels very trapped. And as is so common, she feels like a burden, like it would be easier if she had died, etc.
I haven’t been online too much recently because I’m kind of overwhelmed by a lot of things – and being supportive of her at this point is definitely part of that.
I appreciate your concern.
I am so sorry Alexandra. That breaks my heart. I am thankful your friend is alive and has YOU! Praying for her and you too.
Thanks, Carla. I wish I could do more for her. I wish I could, like, lend her my body so that she could GET OUT of her own life for a while. Or something.
Hi Alexandra,
Its a huge relief to know your friend has suffered no permanent disability. I must admit I’m absolutely amazed she did not. I’m certain that with therapy her arm will function normally, and that physical therapy in itself will give her a much needed morale boost as she sees herself improve.
Certainly post traumatic depression is nothing unusual, especially when there were already mental health issues. She survived a horrific experience. Who wants to be confined to a hospital bed, someone’s home, or walk around with their head and neck in a vise, unable to perform the most basis everyday functions we take for granted?? It certainly leads to a cycle of dependency, depression, helplessness, etc. which just feed on and exacerbate each other. She certainly has her share of health and emotional issues, but thankfully ones that should resolve themselves in time.
You sound like a wonderful friend Alexandra and I hope more people like you are in her life now. Perhaps mental health counselling would be helpful. Sadly at times like this we often feel so helpless to do much for people other than offer our love and support. But even that can make all the difference.
Please keep us posted. Your friend has a difficult road but one that at least has a light at the end of the tunnel, and no I don’t mean an oncoming train! From what you tell us these are issues that should eventually resolve themselves and perhaps gentle reminders of this fact would be helpful.
Perhaps mental health counselling would be helpful.
You beat me to it, Mary.
Alexandra, I’m so sorry about your friend! Please forgive me if this comes across as intrusive, but I worked in mental health for a long time, so I have to ask. Are the medical providers who are following your friend aware of her suicidal ideation? Has she progressed from suicidal thoughts to the formulation of a plan? Have they offered her post-trauma counseling or other mental health intervention?
Hi Alexandra,
I thought of something else. Is there anyway your friend can safely leave the house? Perhaps a drive, going to the mall, stopping in a drugstore to check out what makeup is available to cover her scars, which I’m certain will be minimal but is a matter of great concern to her. A gathering at a friend’s house, lunch, dinner, a movie? Even if a wheelchair is necessary buildings have accomodations for wheelchairs.
Just some thoughts, but perhaps excursions out of the house would do her so much good and boost her morale.
Hi Alexandra,
I would caution you about something else concerning your friend. That because of your good intentions and concern for your friend, you do not get caught in the trap of reinforcing self pity. People say gossip is the most destructive force on the planet. I say its self pity.
Part of love and concern is saying a firm NO to self pity. I had to do this with my mother. Her husband’s mental state was deteriorating and her dreams of a happy old age with him were going out the window. She became depressed, emaciated, whiney, suicidal. I had to spend a week with her to get her back on her feet and gently but firmly made it plain this self pity was coming to an end.
If she complained about using a walker I told her to look around the retirement community she lives in and see the people in wheelchairs. If she found excuses not to eat I refused to accept them and marched her down to the dining room.
So maybe Alexandra you can make it plain you will not tolerate negativity. Remind her you did not call to listen to her complain. Remind her of what she has to be thankful for. Yes she is going through a very difficult time and you are sympathetic and supportive, but believe me it could be much worse and you will stress only the positive.
Like my mother was destroying herself with self pity your friend may be hindering her recovery in the same way.
Hey guys. I really do appreciate your concern. I didn’t intend for this to become a discussion about my friend but I am more than happy to talk to someone about it.
The doctors are mostly unaware of her suicidal ideation. Her parents are aware but they think she is just being melodramatic. She was in therapy for depression until shortly before the accident, but she was laid off from her job for downsizing reasons and I think she lost her mental health coverage as part of that whole shuffle, or else maybe she was paying out-of-pocket and had to stop once her income was so drastically reduced.
The point is, she doesn’t really have access to mental health services at this point. She doesn’t have an actual plan to kill herself, thank goodness – just the impulse to simply not be alive anymore, which comes and goes with varying intensity. In the best hours, she is able to maintain a “just exist, breathe, and let time pass until things feel better” approach to it all. She does seem to be actively interested in keeping herself out of a self-pity frame of mind – I get the sense that she gets bogged down in her own sadness more than that she wallows in it, if that makes sense.
She does occasionally get out of the house now that she is capable of moving around a bit. She started seeing a man about three weeks before the accident, and he has actually been pretty good with it all so far. He takes her places and reassures her that she’s beautiful (unshowered, head partly shaved, gaining weight and losing muscle tone – all of these things make her extremely ashamed to be seen in public, to say nothing of the brace itself). At the same time, I don’t know this guy at all except through her, so I can’t vouch that he is actually a good person, not just someone with a hero complex – and so I’m wary of encouraging her to rely too heavily on him as a source of light/escape, because if he gets tired or bored once he realizes that he cannot be the white knight and fix all of this for her, I wouldn’t want her to be TOO dependent on him. She has a major, long uphill battle and I worry that after a few more weeks of it or whatever, once he’s gone through all of his well of compassion and she’s still crying and depressed and unwashed and in so many kinds of pain, he might just walk away. Still, he is being very good to her right now, and making sure that she gets out to a coffee shop or a restaurant every few days at least. So I think that he’s a positive thing for her.
I got her hooked on a few TV shows that have full seasons on DVD. She never watched much TV before, but I think that the escape might be good for her. I have personal experience with having illness leave you dependent and ashamed, and I know that I found it very beneficial to escape from my own mind in whatever way I could until my body had healed. And I sent her a bunch of audiobooks so that even when she wants to just lay in bed and stare at the ceiling, she at least has some distraction from her own sadness.
I don’t live close enough to be there for her every day in person. I feel terrible about that, like a totally crummy friend, but I am confined to doing the bulk of my support over the phone, on videochat, in e-mail, and via snail mail – sending her packages, letters, etc.
Alexandra,
You may not live close but you are obviously a caring and loving friend, doing whatever you can to help her.
Almost as drunk as Biden was at the Scranton PA 2008 election campaign rally when he introduced the Obama’s to the crowd… the drinking they do throughout the day is just part of the hard-working lifestyle these fellas live. And they do it all for us..their constituents.
Hi Alexandra. I second what Mary said. It sounds as if you are being a wonderful friend.
I have a couple of thoughts about your 3:13PM update. You indicated that her docs are “mostly unaware” of her suicidal thoughts. Does that mean that someone treating her is aware but made no referral for her? Or is she hiding it from them? Also, I assume from what you wrote that her injuries were not sustained in an accident that was a suicide attempt. Is that correct?
As for therapy, if she’s willing to continue, she probably can even without insurance coverage, although it probably wouldn’t be with the same therapist she’d been seeing previously. There are several ways you can get counseling info for her without violating her privacy. If you want, I can post a few links for you or ask a mod to forward the info to you by email. You (or your friend) should be able to make a few calls to get general information without revealing much other than your friend’s general situation and city/county/state.
Alternatively, if your friend were to call the hospital where she was treated, they should be able to tell her if there are free or sliding fee scale trauma counseling options in her area. If she was treated at a trauma center, the trauma coordinator probably has that info. If not, the social work department or the staff who coordinated her referrals for outpatient care would know.
Prayers for you and your friend :)
Fed Up and Mary, thank you for your continued support and suggestions. I’m sorry I didn’t respond earlier.
Fed Up, when I said ‘mostly unaware’ I meant that she had not shared it with any of the doctors she’s seen since the accident. Her therapist knew that she would occasionally struggle with sudden suicidal impulses, but that was a while ago. Her parents know, but I don’t know if they’ve communicated it to anyone. I don’t really know the in’s and out’s of what gets shared, as far as mental health goes.
To my knowledge, the accident was not a suicide attempt.
I would love information about counseling options for her. I think she desperately needs some kind of professional help
Hi again, Alexandra, sorry for the late reply. Here’s a link that can help you get started locating resources for your friend: National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: What if someone I know needs help? 1-800-273-TALK They can probably give you additional suggestions for finding help other than those I’ll include below. And they may be able to suggest ways you can approach your friend to enhance her receptivity to counseling resources, as well as advise you if it’s a good idea to include your friend in the process (like speaker phone or 3 way calling to a hotline with her present). If you talk to them, please be sure to indicate that your friend’s medical providers are not aware of her mental health history or current symptoms and that for whatever reason, your friend hasn’t informed them herself. I find that fairly troublesome, although I do understand why patients are apprehensive about sharing that information.
Other avenues to consider in your hunt for resources:
-Counseling/trauma assessment referral info included in her hospital discharge paperwork that she hasn’t looked at or has neglected to consider.
-The therapist she saw previously, who may be willing to see her on a pro-bono basis or refer her to other local treatment options that are more cost-effective or specialize in trauma-related issues.
-Crime victim resources. If your friend was not at fault in the accident and someone else is being charged, there may be trauma-related victim of crime counseling resources available to her. You may be able to track down something via her state’s office for victims of crime. One of their primary functions is handling crime victim compensation funds but they ought to be able to refer you to someone knowledgeable about other victim services such as trauma counseling. Even if your friend isn’t a victim of crime, if you can find out from the victim services coordinator what kind of trauma counseling programs exist in her area, it’s possible that by contacting those programs directly, your friend may be eligible for low- or no-cost counseling based on her traumatic injuries and not her status as a crime victim. In my region, she’d qualify for free trauma counseling even if no one in the accident were cited or if she herself was at fault. Hopefully her area has similar programs available.
-Legal resources. If she’s linked with legal counsel for matters related to the accident, her attorney’s office may have guidance for her to access local mental health treatment programs.
-Brain injury resources. Since she suffered a bleed on her brain, her state office of the Brain Injury Association of America may have counseling referral info as people with a traumatic brain injury often suffer from mental health issues. They may know of financial resources to help fund mental health intervention for her.
For general info regarding mental health treatment options in her area if she is uninsured, here are some places to try.
–NeedyMed.org’s free clinic listing– Most will be medical clinics but mental health resources are also listed in some areas. This is likely not a complete listing of mental health resources for the uninsured in her area, but it’s worth a look.
-Mental Health America’s Factsheet: How do I find treatment? Be sure to note the 211 link there in case her area has 211 service.
-U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Consumer/Survivor Mental Health Information: Where to Go for Help
-National Alliance on Mental Illness: List of state and local NAMI chapters. They also have an Information Helpline and FAQ.
Blessings to you and your friend in the new year!
THANK YOU, Fed Up. I really appreciate your help. I didn’t really know where to start and this is all great information.