One of the Senate's two (perhaps) remaining conservative Democrats -- one who was key to the passage of the President's Medicare Rx bill -- has decided to oppose George W. Bush on Social Security reform. The New York Times' David E. Rosenbaum reports on this major decision by Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat:

Mr. Baucus's position will make it difficult for the White House to obtain the Democratic votes necessary for the measure to get through the Senate.

"I seriously doubt I'm going to be the linchpin this time," Mr. Baucus, the senior Democrat on the Finance Committee, said in an interview.

Although the Social Security system has difficulties, Mr. Baucus said, "it is not a crisis," as Mr. Bush asserts. The president's plan to allow workers to divert part of their Social Security taxes into private investment accounts would "exacerbate the problem, not solve it," the senator said. And the suggestion that benefits could be cut "by 40 percent 50 or 60 years from now," he said, "is simply unacceptable."

As I've written earlier, I am loath to underestimate the political skills of this President and his team. That having been said, it appears as though the Democrats are finally taking notice of Mr. Bush. If Baucus isn't going to join in on this Social Security plan, I just don't think it's going to happen.