Max Baucus’ Indiscretions: Corporate Influence Worse than Sex

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By now you’ve heard the news that Max Baucus nominated his mistress (then withdrew the nomination) to be US Attorney.

A Department of Justice official who is in a relationship with Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) withdrew as a finalist for Montana U.S. Attorney to live with the senator in Washington, a Baucus spokesperson confirmed to Main Justice today.

Melodee Hanes, the Montana senator’s former state director, withdrew earlier this year after Baucus sent her name and two others to the White House as his recommendations for the state’s top federal prosecuting job.

Here’s what Hanes’ ex-husband has to say on whether their relationship had anything to do with the nomination:

“She was recommended for the position because of a very close and personal relationship with Max Baucus and she withdrew because of a very close and personal relationship with Max Baucus,” Thomas Bennett, Hanes’ ex-husband, told Main Justice. Bennett and Hanes divorced in December 2008.

Best as I can tell, the timing looks something like this:

June 2008: Baucus and Hanes dancing in manner that appeared “beyond professional”

December 2008: Hanes and former husband divorce

Spring 2009: Baucus nominates Hanes–along with two others–to be US Attorney

April 2009: Baucus and wife announce divorce

June 2009: Baucus and Hanes buy place to live in together

Now, it is pretty bad form to nominate your mistress to be your state’s top federal prosecutor. Though Baucus and Hanes did withdraw that nomination (I wonder whether their relationship would have been considered in the White House’s not-quite crack vetting process?). I also wonder whether they withdrew her nomination because it was bad form, or because Montana’s recent history with Bill Mercer makes the state very sensitive to US Attorneys who don’t actually live in Montana. And there’s the detail that Baucus was carrying on an affair with one of his staffers, though that seems to be the default in DC.

But while we’re getting all scandalized about Baucus’s bad judgment, let’s talk about the bad judgment that did hurt taxpayers, rather than the one that almost did: the way in which the revolving door on his committee staff made it very easy for the insurance industry to write the Senate’s health care reform bill. I’m much more offended–and directly affected–by the fact that former Wellpoint VP Liz Fowler wrote the Senate health care bill than I am that Baucus nominated, then withdrew, his mistress for a plum job.

Max Baucus apparently has really poor judgment, across the board, on personnel issues. But it’s not the almost-scandal of Hanes that is the most damning.

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42 replies
  1. Leen says:

    These inside the beltway folks think they can get away with anything. What was Baucus thinking? Is he unable to say “conflict of interest”

    Guess just write this one up to just another fellow thinking with that other head.

  2. Citizen92 says:

    I saw Max and a woman walking around DC’s “Barracks Row” restaurants a few weeks back. The vibe didn’t feel right. Now I know why. (That and he wasn’t wearing a belt).

    • cwolf says:

      U said: I saw Max and a woman walking around DC’s “Barracks Row” restaurants a few weeks back. The vibe didn’t feel right. Now I know why. (That and he wasn’t wearing a belt).
      HuH? inquiring minds want to know
      Was she wearing panties?
      Did you have your glasses on?

  3. tsuki says:

    “Hanes, who is divorced and now lives with Baucus in the Eastern Market neighborhood of Washington, D.C., ultimately withdrew her name from consideration for the U.S. attorney position in order to move to Washington, and she now works in the Justice Department’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention as a counselor to the administrator.”

    http://www.rollcall.com/news/41188-1.html?ET=rollcall:e6074:80068245a:&st=email

    Of course, Max didn’t help her get that job. She came from backwater Montana, and the DOJ was just “thrilled” to hire her. No other applicants.

    UH-HUH.

    • emptywheel says:

      Well, she does seem highly qualified in matters of child abuse. But that is different (though arguably related) than juvenile delinquency, which is what she’s working on in DOJ.

      • PJEvans says:

        The reports I’ve seen (at the Great Orange) are that she and her then-husband were working together in Iowa, trying to railroad people for child abuse.
        The courts apparently were getting wise to them, so they left the state. (He apparently had also had prior ‘difficulties’ in another state.)

        A sleazy mistress for a sleazy politician, is what it looks like to me. And neither one is likely to get what they deserve.

      • Mary says:

        Kinda sounds like adult delinquency is what she’s been working on at DOJ.

        USA isn’t just a plum job, it’s one that impacts people lives and the institution of justice in a really direct fashion. But I guess as long as Baucus is a “conservative” Dem and is abiding by those conservative values in taking away a public option so he can not get Republican votes for the bill – that’s all that matters. I’m sure his affair served as no distraction and no lever point in his high quality, conservative “decisions.”

        And not to be snotty, but “Melodee”??

        What, were all the Bunny-s and Muffy-s taken?

        sorry – I forgot to spell check. Bunnees and Muffees.

  4. beguiner says:

    All this talk of “withdrew” and “withdrawal”, coupled with the subject matter of partner swapping, on top of the employment of lovers, and mixed in with writing of bills…

    this is some pretty filthy shyte.

      • earlofhuntingdon says:

        Hanes may have withdrawn her nomination, but it may have been Baucus who initiated it after one of those proverbial cloakroom conversations in the Senate.

        Not that anyone there, in the White House or DoJ would mind – ask Sally Quinn about Village standards for mistresses taking advantage of their lovers. But his cross-party health industry sponsors might have modest objections to their puppet having a life of his own. The folks back home, who are they?

        Power and sex are mutually enforcing aphrodisiacs. Ask the Romans, bulls or bighorn sheep. If Washington is Sodom, does that make the Pentagon or Langley Gomorrah?

      • Loo Hoo. says:

        The Senate leader who’s been a major proponent of Democratic health care legislation had submitted six names to a third-party reviewer, who whittled those to Hanes and two others. Matsdorf said the senator sent the three names to the White House with no ranking to select a nominee.

        I don’t understand this. Major proponent? Straight from the LA Times.

        • earlofhuntingdon says:

          Senators doing their jobs vet candidates for competence and experience and politics, and have strong preferences. That’s how they get the public’s business done while building the necessary patronage network to survive in politics. Politicos like Rove may not vet for competence, only loyalty, but they have even stronger preferences.

          Baucus not having a preference is a strong indicator he had one, but for now obvious reasons, he wasn’t willing to admit what it was. Besides, the formal process is often circumvented in public as well as private hiring. Recommendations come sotto voce, unwritten and outside the formal process, but they are heard loud and clear.

          As getting mistresses jobs is an art, so is praising senators for being a shit or a “centrist”. Baucus may be a major proponent of health care legislation; he is not a proponent of health care reform.

  5. earlofhuntingdon says:

    Baucus, like Vitter, is so egotistical that he has no appreciation for his or other Village wrongs. You’re so Vain would be an understatement for them both and their class.

    I’m bothered, but I’m bothered more that he almost got away with nominating his current mistress and public employee as the federal prosecutor for his state. Nepotism is rampant, anti-trust and consumer regulations are out, as are taxes for the rich. Who says America has no royalty or hereditary nobility? We’ve just improved it, adding money to genes as the qualification for membership – and a uniform mentality of all for me and none for thee.

  6. alabama says:

    Surely it’s not the sex (for what it’s worth, I’m a free-love anarchist of the Emma Goldman persuasion); it’s not the favoritism (I’ve played favorites now and then, to the benefit of all involved); and it’s not even, technically speaking, the senator’s love affair with the insurance industry (“girl gotta eat,” after all).

    No, Max is getting nailed because we need the public option. I take this story as the measure of our shared sense of urgency: if Max had announced his support, this story would never have broken. Not, for sure, on the front page.

    When we need something, everyone knows it; and while some migratory animals may want to stay put, they know they’ll be moving on (because it, meaning “the herd,” will be moving on).

      • earlofhuntingdon says:

        Payback’s a mistress and conflict of interest exposed? Pity they don’t all engage in it simultaneously, then it might be more apparent to the hinterlands how Washington works, which might lead to a few deserving job losses, and sex partners who do it for cash would have an easier time of it than those who do it for a living.

      • alabama says:

        That sounds right.

        I remember your post a while back about the “good Max”, but I also remember a web-like visual in the NYTimes showing his network of insurance-industry patrons. He could be drawing fire from everyone. Not an easy read…

        Or there may be another message in the works. Perhaps our favorite Independent Senator from Connecticut is making a point about folks from Montana (e.g. that they just don’t belong to this conversation).

  8. BayStateLibrul says:

    Baucus is a fucker.

    Take his vote yesterday. He voted with Conrad and Lieberman to try
    to wipe out the “Long-term care” provision of the Health Bill. Luckily
    he failed…

    Bastards!

  9. Leen says:

    “I’m much more offended–and directly affected–by the fact that former Wellpoint VP Liz Fowler wrote the Senate health care bill than I am that Baucus nominated, then withdrew, his mistress for a plum job.’

    Bingo!

  11. Arbusto says:

    I’d read AP’s account of Maxi’s name submissions including that Maxi didn’t push her over five other submittals. AP’s article also stated his ex said the relationship began after the separation. Your article kind of tarnishes AP reporting. Move along, nothing to see here. Hah

    • emptywheel says:

      So wait.

      1) You’re okay with Baucus nominating his mistress to be USA?
      2) You’re sure that AP is more correct with less detailed article than Main Justice, which seems to have more details and may have had it first?
      3) You’ve got evidence that Baucus didn’t exert pressure from what source?
      4) You’re suggesting that, in a post saying the REAL scandal is Baucus’ insurance ties and then second hand the BAD JUDGMENT of recommending his mistress to be USA, I should “move along” because their affair didn’t start until at least one of them had separated from wife?

      I’m not making an issue of Baucus’ having a mistress before he got divorced. I’m raising an issue that Baucus, in general, has problems with bad judgment on who he hires where.

  13. earlofhuntingdon says:

    Congress and the White House seem to be operating from the same page of the playbook as big business; they are doing to America what big business has done to American jobs: 20th century notions of shared productivity have given way to simple resource extraction.

  14. freepatriot says:

    bye bye Baucus

    and he better KNOW he’s going away, too

    we’re Democrats

    we don’t tolerate shit like this

    ensign, vitter, sanford ???

    we ain’t like that

    here’s some advice, baucus, RESIGN, NOW

    save your staff the embarrassment and harassment

    I’m lookin up your phone number, and you don’t want that …

    so, is this the trash talk thread ???

    COOL

  15. earlofhuntingdon says:

    OT, six doctors attempt to re-open the investigation of the death of British scientist David Kelly. The money quote:

    The Government scientist’s death was investigated by Lord Hutton [not a coroner], who concluded that he bled to death as a result of a cut to his wrist and an overdose of painkillers. But Michael Powers QC, a former assistant coroner, said the cuts would not have caused him to bleed to death and that there was only a normal dose of co-proxamol present in Dr Kelly’s body….

    Dr Powers, an expert in coroners’ law, said: “Suicide cannot be presumed it has to be proven. From the evidence that we have as to the circumstances of his death, in particular the aspect of haemorrhage, we do not believe that there was sufficient evidence to prove beyond reasonable doubt that he killed himself.”

    • behindthefall says:

      I wonder if there’s a lab test that this analgesic messes up, that is, if its presence keeps the presence of something else from showing up.

    • Mary says:

      It’s easy to rest easy on this one. After all, it’s not like we have wild cia “assets” using third party nationals to engage in bombings, dententions, and scoping out farm families before callling in commando killings that leave a 6 yo wandering back and forth, alone in a field of bodies and covered in his parents blood. It’s not like we have a Dept of Justice that would allow gov related actors to kidnap, sodomize, arrange for the mutlitation of genitals, disappear children, set up drone programs to kill civilians from afar and with not only impunity but gameboy graphics satisfaction, chain a tortured 20 yo to freeze to death for NOT being a member of al Qaeda, and then pat each other on their backs for patriotism.

      God forbid – if we had something like that going on, then maybe some conspiracy theorist might spin a story, but in the real world, at least we know our institutions are filled with good men and women who do the right thing even at high costs.

      Or not.

  16. constantweader says:

    As usual, Marcy has the best take on the Baucus affair, tho Digby’s comment on Marcy’s comment is great, too: “The last thing I want to think about before I’ve had my coffee is Max Baucus’s sex life.”

    The Constant Weader at http://www.RealityChex.com

    • earlofhuntingdon says:

      Yes, and she usefully quotes the best part of EW’s comment, which was, in effect, that Baucus’ senate staff includes more than one staffer who can’t tell the difference between the world’s first and second oldest professions.

  17. earlofhuntingdon says:

    Slitting the wrists is a notoriously inefficient way to kill oneself, which the Independent story makes clear by suggesting that any first-year medical student would know it. Too many bits and bobs between the knife and a useful artery. You end up messy and with a permanently limp wrist. Dr. Kelly would have known it, too, and taken a different drug or done something more reliably likely to kill himself.

    On the other hand, using non-traceable, quickly metabolized drugs that the DoD and CIA, for example, have on hand, would be a good way to do it. Throw in a couple of ordinary co-proxamol, spill a handful of empty packets about, and use that handy one-handed military flip-knife and presto, contract fulfilled.

    Mind, without a cooperating or weak coroner, or an investigation headed by someone in the House of Lords, the death might not be ruled a suicide. If this was not a suicide, it was done by someone cocksure an investigation would not be much trouble. The six good doctors suggest enough evidence exists to reopen the case.

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