CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES (BAUCUS); MARK WILSON/GETTY IMAGES (GIFFORDS)
Enter
POINTERS
2
POWERFUL MONTANA
DEMOCRAT RETIRES
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FRANCE LEGALIZES GAY MARRIAGE
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OUTRAGEOUS
COMMENTS DIRECTED
AT GABBY GIFFORDS
HUFFINGTON
04.28.13
Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who currently
serves as the Senate Finance Committee
chairman, announced he will not seek
reelection in 2014. The 72-year-old’s
retirement may give Republicans an opportunity to win a Senate seat in a state that
Mitt Romney handily won in the 2012 election. Baucus is one of eight senators to have
announced plans to retire before the next election cycle. “In the next year and a half, I
want to spend all my hard work, shoe leather and luck working for the people of Montana
instead of on campaigning,” Baucus said in a statement.
The French Assembly passed gay marriage on Tuesday, 331-225. The vote comes
amid an increase in protests against gay couples, with one drawing hundreds of
thousands of demonstrators. “We believe that the first weddings will be beautiful and
that they’ll bring a breeze of joy, and that those who are opposed to them today will
surely be confounded when they are overcome with the happiness of the newlyweds
and the families,” Justice Minister Christiane Taubira said.
After the Senate failed to pass a bill last week
that would have expanded background checks
on gun purchases, former Rep. Gabby Giffords,
who was shot in the head in January 2011,
wrote a New York Times op-ed saying she was
“furious” with the outcome. But conservative
columnist James Taranto questioned how Giffords was able to write the piece so quickly.
“So we are supposed to believe that somehow in less than five hours a woman who has
severe impairments of her motor and speech functions was able to produce 900 publishable
words ... I think that’s a little bit odd,” he said on an NRA talk show.