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Friday, June 19, 2009
'High Noon' for Bingaman?
By Michael Coleman
Journal Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — Sen. Jeff Bingaman's deliberate legislative style is far from dramatic, but a politics newspaper on Thursday described him as playing a Gary Cooper-like role in a health care debate that's shaping up as "High Noon" inside the Beltway.
As the only Democrat who sits on both the Senate finance and health committees, Bingaman is uniquely poised to shape health care overhaul legislation now under debate in Congress.
"Bingaman has stepped up to help manage the complex issues of insurance coverage at the heart of the fight, and he is a go-between for the two committees which reflect competing wings of his party," Politico's David Rogers wrote.
"A professor's son from a small mining town, he is reserved and pragmatic but with a certain laconic edge," the article said, adding that the Silver City native is "very much grounded in the character of his native West."
The article even called Bingaman "edgy" for being one of few Mountain West senators to oppose the Iraq war and a series of flag-burning amendments.
"You think I'm edgy?" the famously low-key New Mexico senator asked Rogers with a laugh, according to the article.
Edgy or not, Bingaman's former senate colleagues — including Tom Daschle and Bob Kerrey — had nothing but compliments for the way he does his job.
"He's a Westerner — quiet, smart, doesn't behave like a talk show guest, trustworthy and important when it comes time to do the work," Kerrey told Politico.
"I have heard people interpret his unwillingness to jump quickly and say, 'I'll support that' at every twist and turn of the legislative process as a sign of indecisiveness and caution," Kerry said. "I see careful, methodical, reliable work being done. If Obama signs a bill this year, he'll be able to because of Bingaman."
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