Max Baucus is obviously conducting a controlled experiment to see how much bullshit he can serve up about his healthcare reform bill, and its bipartisan prospects, before the media and the Democratic Party are willing to call him an out-and-out charlatan.

So, with the perfectly straight face that comes from years and years of fooling all of the people all of the time, Baucus is still billing Republican support as forthcoming:

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., says his healthcare proposal doesn’t have bipartisan support yet, but he expects it will by the time it hits the Senate floor.
[...]
“No Republican has offered his or her support at this moment. But I think by the time we get the final passage in this committee, you’ll find Republican support,” Baucus said during a news conference. “This is a bill that should enjoy broad support.”

Baucus actually offered an even more confident prediction:

I fully believe at the end of the day there’s going to be Republican support for this bill.

That’s why he is still “talking, working with, exploring, probing, cajoling” Republicans to win their support for his bill. That’s why this presumptive lion-of-the-senate is still pouring every fiber of his being into the fight:

I believe I have an obligation to work as diligently and as hard as I can to try to get the most broad-based bill possible.

Of course, no one can be sure how Baucus defines “broad-based”. Based on his observed behavior to date, Baucus’ definition might well be “receiving the enthusiastic and almost unanimous support of health insurance and pharmaceutical companies throughout the land.”