Politics & Power Quote by Max Baucus

What looks like a shrug is actually a seasoned senator doing two jobs at once: signaling a likely “yes” while keeping his escape hatch unbolted. “I’m inclined” is the classic Washington hedge, a way to lean without committing. It frames support for John Roberts as the default setting of seriousness and reasonableness, not as a political choice that needs defending. Then comes the pressure valve: “unless something else comes up.” That vague clause isn’t about new information so much as new incentives - a late-breaking controversy, a constituent backlash, a party whip count, a donor signal. The sentence builds in permission to change course while preserving the speaker’s self-image as deliberative.

“It’s a close call” performs a different kind of labor. By claiming agonized balance, Baucus positions himself in the bipartisan center, where political risks are amortized through posture. If he votes to confirm, he can say he wrestled with it. If he votes no, he can say he was open-minded until the last minute. Either way, the performance is moderation.

The context matters: Roberts’ nomination in 2005 was pitched as competence and temperament - a nominee designed to make opposition look reflexive. For a Democrat like Baucus, publicly flirting with support telegraphs independence from party orthodoxy, a useful brand in a purple-ish political lane. The genius of the line is its managed ambiguity: it speaks “thoughtfulness” fluently while saying as little as possible about the stakes of a lifetime seat on the Court.