Max Baucus takes his lumps from the left leaning blogs and Sirota on a regular basis.  Most recently, Sirota particularly has been relentless on fast track & trade issues, pausing every few posts for further self promotion before the next free trade, Lieberman rant (there must be a Lieberman book coming soon "How I almost, single handedly, hopping on one foot with an arm tied behind my back,  defeated the war machine of team Lieberman"  sorry, the subtitle is to long to mention) .  

Max's communication director has posted a positive piece answering his critics at LITW.  Hopefully the post will be promoted to the primary section of the blog.

Working with both sides of the aisle is nothing new for Max. Nor is it a matter of political expediency; he's not a partisan person by his very nature. And he's learned over his nearly 30 years in the Senate that nothing of consequence gets done without collaboration.

As he's said, Max is proud as punch to be Democrat. But he's a Montanan and American first. That's something about him that will never change. Nor should it.

Max has amassed some serious clout in the Senate. He's now one of the most powerful people in the country. But the one thing that Montanans continue to recognize - the reason he's won 7 statewide elections - is that he's never forgotten where he's from or the people he represents.

Throughout his career, Max has done things that could be perceived as liberal, conservative, independent, libertarian, or even constitutionalist. But overall, the overarching theme is that Max Baucus takes his marching orders from all of Montana, folks in places like Shelby, Hardin, Libby, Hamilton - as well as Billings, Great Falls, Butte, Missoula, Bozeman, Helena, and Kalispell.

Good for Max.  A strong response has been missing.  This is a good start.