Sen. Baucus on horseback at inauguration

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) saddled up for his fourth inaugural parade on Monday, sporting a cowboy hat during the ceremony.

Several other lawmakers joined Baucus in a show of Western solidarity that crossed party lines.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Baucus and the panel’s ranking member, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), wore similar tan cowboy hats and were joined by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) in demonstrating their Western-state pride during President Obama's second swearing-in ceremony.

Baucus started the cowboy hat tradition in 2001 and has ridden a horse in every presidential inauguration parade since.

On Monday he was accompanied by newly elected Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D) and Montana Republican Rep. Steve Daines.

Baucus, in a tan hat and long tan leather coat, strode through the Capitol Rotunda with Daines, wearing a black hat, on their way to their horses for the ride down Pennsylvania Avenue.

Neither Hatch nor Baucus said they coordinated the hat-wearing event.

But Wyden said it was a matter of Westerners banding together. “This was Oregon’s contribution, the Western contribution,” he said.

Jeremy Herb contributed to this story.

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