WAUKON, IOWA — One is a thrifty soybean farmer from Iowa with a penchant for righteous speeches about government waste. The other is a Stanford-educated lawyer from a Montana ranching family who looks uncomfortable leading a debate.
Despite more than 60 years in Congress between them, Charles E. Grassley, the Iowa Republican, and Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat, are outsiders -- loners whose independent streaks make colleagues wary, sometimes even mistrustful.
But unlikely as it may seem, the partnership between these two slightly eccentric men may hold the key to overhauling the nation's sprawling healthcare system -- a legislative grail that has eluded the giants of the Senate for more than half a century.
In the face of strident criticism from colleagues in both parties, Baucus (chairman of the Senate Finance Committee) and Grassley (the panel's senior Republican) are laboring to fashion a series of compromises on healthcare that might win the support of a bipartisan majority on Capitol Hill.
Their effort got a nod Wednesday from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who at a meeting with Grassley encouraged the quest despite complaints from more-partisan Democrats.
The stakes remain high. If Baucus and Grassley fail, this year's historic healthcare debate easily could devolve into another battle royal between the parties, with the prospects for meaningful legislation uncertain at best.
Many Democrats and Republicans have already rejected a middle ground.
"On both sides, there are people who want it their way or the highway," said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), who is working with the two on a healthcare bill. "But if we want to really make a difference with healthcare . . . it is critical that we find some compromise."
Baucus and Conrad are among the senior Democrats who think that their party will need some Republican support to get the 60-vote supermajority necessary to prevent a GOP filibuster and move a major healthcare bill to the president this year.
Democratic Sens. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, who had been expected to lead the charge on healthcare, and Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia are battling serious illnesses and may not be able to cast their votes.
Moreover, a number of moderates in the party have expressed reservations about parts of President Obama's healthcare agenda, including the creation a government health insurance plan.
