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These days in the Senate, if a Democrat wants to see legislation pass, he or she needs a Republican BFF. Yesterday, the NYT announced the launching of a new maritime joint venture between Max Baucus — who did as much as anyone else to throttle healthcare reform in its crib, including any Republican — and his longtime BFF, Charles Grassley, who danced the throttle-healthcare-tango with Baucus day and night for as long as was necessary:

Senators Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana and chairman of the Finance Committee, and Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the panel’s senior Republican, released a draft $85 billion plan that would give employers a payroll tax exemption for hiring those who have been unemployed for at least 60 days. The bill would also provide a $1,000 income tax credit for new workers retained for 52 weeks. (A draft of the bill is available here.)

The measure, which is scheduled to be reviewed by Senate Democrats this afternoon, also seeks to spur capital investment by extending tax benefits, by providing a federal subsidy for bonds issued for public works projects, and by taking steps to improve highway and transit construction. Jobless benefits and health care coverage for the unemployed would also be extended in the measure.

The costs of the bill would be offset by closing tax loopholes and shifting some money to be made available for future improvements in the Medicare program.

Calling the provisions time-sensitive, the two lawmakers said the bill was drafted in an effort to respond to current economic conditions, “We believe they reflect a balanced set of member views and priorities,” the two senators said in a joint statement.

Mindful of the difficulties of bipartisan cooperation in the polarized Senate, the lawmakers warned their colleagues not to alter the shape of the plan too significantly if they hoped to rally both parties behind it.

In addition, they said the measure should not be rushed and that lawmakers must have ample time to review and react to the plan since it did not go through the usual Finance Committee process.

And in a warning to Republicans who have blocked other major Senate bills, the lawmakers said “any efforts to needlessly delay Senate completion of consideration of this package through partisan means will undermine our goal of timely action in the current economic climate.”

The announcement immediately threw up a bunch of questions:
Will the bipartisan ship reach port safely? Will it founder and sink? Will its co-captain find it necessary to abandon ship halfway (for no apparent reason)? Will it be hijacked by pirates? Will its precious cargo be found one morning to have suddenly suffered crib-death? Stay tuned!

But as it turned out, the ship barely made it out of port. Within hours of the Baucus-Grassley announcement, there was a mutiny. Apparently, the crew had see this movie before. There were concerns that Baucus had, once again, given away too much to Republicans at the very outset. And that “(t)his was about to get bogged down again”. The mutineers appealed to the Rear Admiral (nullus), who promptly relieved the co-captains of command:

Bipartisan agreement on jobs lasted all of a few hours. This afternoon, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus announced he’d reached accord with ranking member Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA). They unveiled what was supposed to be a final jobs package. But the agreement didn’t sit well with many Democrats, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has pulled it out of their hands (nullus), and announced he’d move ahead with a smaller bill.

“I think Reid saw the writing on the wall,” said one top Senate Democratic aide. “This was about to get bogged down again so he pulled it back.

Liberal Democrats were not pleased with the Baucus-Grassley compromise. Among other things, Baucus and Grassley said that jobs could only move forward if the Senate agreed to take up a bipartisan “reform” (a.k.a. slashing) of the estate tax. They registered their dissatisfaction at a weekly caucus lunch this afternoon, and when it was over, Reid emerged to make the announcement.

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The Hill presented a slightly different take on Reid’s announcement:

“We’re going to move this afternoon to a smaller package than talked about in the press,” Reid said.
[...]
“The message is so watered-down with people wanting other things in this big package,” said Reid.

Stand by for headlines reading: “Harry Reid Cutting Baucus’s Big Package“. (About time he was cut down to size, actually.)