Democrat Baucus Nominated His Girlfriend To Be A Federal Prosecutor
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Democrats, Health Care, health care reform
I don’t usually talk about the politics of personal destruction…well, unless a politician abuses his or her power. And this is one of those times.
Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus’ office confirmed late Friday night that the Montana Democrat was carrying on an affair with his state office director, Melodee Hanes, when he nominated her to be U.S. attorney in Montana.
According to a source familiar with their relationship, Hanes and Baucus began their relationship in the summer of 2008 – nearly a year before Baucus and his wife, Wanda, divorced in April 2009. The Senator had informally separated from his wife in March 2008 and they were living apart when he began dating Hanes, according to Baucus’ office.
I don’t care who met who and when it happened…if you’re sleeping with somebody and you’re in a position of power it’s not appropriate to nominate them for a job. No way, no how.
What a blunder!
So, will this undermine Baucus’ work on the health care bill?
UPDATE:
A fellow editor over at True/Slant has convinced me that calling Hanes Baucus’ “mistress” isn’t exactly accurate given the circumstances. Also calling her a “federal attorney” is too broad of a distinction.
This entry was posted on Saturday, December 5th, 2009 and is filed under Democrats, Health Care, health care reform. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
December 5th, 2009 at 1:29 am
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December 5th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Dems just continue to rub their power-drunk arrogance in our faces… had enough yet?
Imagine what the Left would have been saying had Mark Sanford proceeded to go and get his mamasita a gubment job… these people’s hypocrisy knows no bounds whatsoever- disgusting.
December 5th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Baucus was working on health care? Trying to destroy something counts as working on it?
December 5th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
I doubt it will undermine his work on health care. That’s been standing on it’s own all year. Besides it’s been largely replaced by stuff other people have done.
That’s not to say the GOP won’t talk about it a lot. But right now there are 5-6 people who matter on health care. Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln, Joe Lieberman, Mary Landrieu, Olympia Snowe and possibly Susan Collins.
And Reaganite, she didn’t get the job. She withdrew her name from consideration so she could stat in DC and be close to her man.
That said he will (and should) get dinged by the ethics committee for this.
December 5th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Kind of makes you wonder what goes on in these guys’ heads. As if no one was going to find out she was his girlfriend!
December 5th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Fortunately for the Dems, Baucus is not up for re-election in 2010. Montanans don’t respond well to this sort of thing, but they are stuck with him until 2014. If he was up in 2010, I’d have to consider upwardly revising my mid-term Senate forecast (R’s pick up 2-3 seats).
Major corruption scandals for the party in power is the one thing that can change the game in the mid-terms, from a typical out-of-power party pick-up to a “throw the bums out” sea change like ’94 (Rostenkowski et. al.) and ’06 (Foley, Hastert, et. al.). The Dems have not yet risen (fallen?) to that level, but between the questionable political and ethical behavior of Baucus, Dodd, Reid, Spector and Landrieu – they’re working on it.
December 6th, 2009 at 6:49 am
“Kind of makes you wonder what goes on in these guys’ heads.”
I’ll take a stab at it: “I like her just fine; I bet everybody else will, too.”
December 6th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
As far as I can tell Baucus was actually being rational when he submitted her name.
He put her name on a fairly short list of six, sent the list to smart people who were not sleeping with her, and they sent back a list of the three they thought were most qualified. That was the list he submitted to the White House, and it included his girlfriend’s name.
That said you are not supposed to nominate your girlfriend for anything, even if she’s obviously the only person in the entire country who could do the job. It’s unethical. Se he should (and will) get dinged by the ethics committee.
December 7th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
It never ceases to amaze me how power goes to these people’s heads. If only this was the worst abuse going on.
May 20th, 2011 at 12:25 am
And he really does not care about making his philandering so obvious to the public! Tsk!