Our View: Max Baucus knew who his 1 million bosses were

The left wing of the political spectrum joined forces with the right wing on Tuesday, screaming in delight that Sen. Max Baucus would not run for a seventh term in the U.S. Senate.

Tea party groups pointed to Baucus' support for Obamacare, while the left wing blogs were steamed that Baucus let people down with his vote against mandatory background checks to purchase weapons.

Baucus always said he had the best one million bosses in the world — the people of Montana.

We suspect that today the million bosses will be more kind to Baucus than the political left and right.

Virtually no Montanan agreed with Baucus on all of his votes in the last 36 years. While his votes had a Democratic and liberal tinge, he was not a party-line voter. He always took an independent stand. But there is no doubt that the retiring senator always had the best interests of his bosses in mind.

As the powerful chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, he did his best to ensure that Montana got what it deserved from Washington. The state is full of programs, buildings and projects with the Baucus stamp on them.

Baucus' announcement prompted a stampede of potential candidates jockeying for his seat. In all likelihood, we will have to brace ourselves for a long, bloody campaign. Dark money outfits of all political shades will want to get involved in a race in one of the few western states that routinely switches back and forth from Republican to Democrat and back. Get ready to unplug the TV set.

But whatever happens, Montana and the Hi-Line will have to adjust to a new reality. It is highly unlikely that the next Senate Finance Committee chairman will know or care what the hours at Wild Horse port are, what the drought conditions are on the Hi-Line these days, whether the Indian reservations are in need of aid to recover from flooding or whether Havre has Essential Air Service at its airport.

We'll be lucky if the new chairman ever heard of Montana's Hi-Line.

Baucus' legacy will be different in the Capital Beltway, but up here he will be remembered as the guy who stood up for Montanans, the people whose voice would otherwise be drowned out by the bigger, more powerful states.

He didn't always pay attention to the party leaders or the ideologues, but Max Baucus served his 1 million bosses well.