HEADLINE: Baucus said his girlfriend got US attorneys recommendation on MERIT

[Bluebear]

WASHINGTON – Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus defended recommending his girlfriend for appointment as Montana's U.S. attorney, saying Saturday his one-time staff member and the former state prosecutor is "highly qualified" but eventually withdrew her nomination.

Baucus said that he began dating former state office director Melodee Hanes after they were both separated from their spouses. The Montana Democrat said they did not have an affair, but began dating while she worked for him.

"As we grew closer and things progressed, we knew it was time to begin the process of Mel transitioning out of my Senate office," Baucus said in a statement issued by his office Saturday...

Baucus' office released a resume for Hanes, which listed her only federal court experience as handling personal injury and employment discrimination cases from 1982 to 1986 as a partner in a private Iowa law firm. All of Hanes' experience as a prosecutor came in state court, mostly in child abuse cases in Iowa and Montana, according to the resume. She received prosecutor's training in 1994 at the FBI's National Law Institute in Quantico, Va., the resume states.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_baucus_girlfriend_nominated

[Renew Deal]

1. Some of these people are ethically stupid

Actually, no. They know better. It's just dirty and avoidable.

[Mass]

5. Agreed.

[Bitwit1234]

23. It is still absolutely a "conflict of interest"

No senator should be allowed to nominate a family member or "friend" for a government post. You know darn well, that the person nominated would receive favorable treatment.

[BeHereNow]

2. Could "Merit" = blowjob ability?

I think I may have broken the secret code!
I knew that DU decoder ring would come in handy!

BHN

[Mass]

4. How sexist can you get. As stupid as the move was, she was qualified.

Do not fall for the GOP BS. I am a lot more bothered by Baucus adventure with the insurance companies than with whom he sleeps.

[walldude]

7. And there was no one else as or more qualified who

isn't sleeping with a public official? Frankly Baucus should have known better. You take a public office it's to serve the fucking public not your own and your lovers interests. I bet if I bothered to look I could find a dozen people just as qualified who aren't sleeping with Baucus.

[Mass]

12. 5 names were submitted. As I said, he should have known better, but she still was qualified.

Assuming that a woman is not qualified is sexist.

[BeHereNow]

8. Guess I worked in the music bizz too long- call me jaded.

Whether anyone wants to acknowledge it or not,
sexual bargaining is often used by those in power,
who are usually men.

BHN

[Mass]

13. I stand with digby on that. I am a lot more bothered by his links with the insurance industry than

by whom he screws. It is bad judgement, obviously, but it is offensive that this gets more press by the media than the fact that his former staff is lobbying for insurance companies. (I am sure that there are power games here, but I have trouble understanding how it is shocking that people working 12 hours a day together or more eventually end up together. He should never have offered her for the position, granted, but, in the DC world, it is a very small offense.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/baucus-and-his-women-by-digby-last.html

Baucus And His Women

by digby

The last thing I want to think about before I've had my coffee is Max Baucus's sex life, but I had no choice since the scandal de jour seems to be that he stepped out on his wife with an also married staffer and then nominated that staffer for US Attorney (and later withdrew the nomination.)Now they are both divorced and live together. Whatever. I really don't care who these people sleep with and they seem to have thought better of the US Attorney business. He's a cad. She is too. I'm shocked, simply shocked.

But as Marcy Wheeler points out, he has indulged in another indiscretion which actually does bother me and affect all of us --- and nobody gives a damn about that:

hile 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.



No kidding. I don't care who he screws in his personal life, but the screwing of the American people is seriously offensive. Unfortunately, the second won't get any notice at all and the first will become a scandal that could lead to political trouble. And I think that says it all about what's wrong with our political system.

[BeHereNow]

15. Agree with you 100% and adding that anyone who does not believe

that a guy who screws the people is above sexual bargaining
in his personal life is dangerously naive about how things work.

As a woman, who is called a sexist in this thread by some,
I have experienced it in my life more times
than I care to recall.
The music industry, among others, is full of scum.
Wonder why so many vapid talentless people are marketed?
Hint: It isn't because they are talented.

BHN

[CreekDog]

19. It's the conflict of interest

recommending your girlfriend for a cherished government appointment?

come on.

the fact is, if you have that kind of conflict of interest, there are certain things you have to recuse yourself from.

[BeHereNow]

22. Agreed.

Just another example of how corrupt things are.
They have become down right blatant about it.

BHN

[walldude]

6. Beat me to it!

Although as I clicked the thread I was debating on how to word it... You sure solved that problem :rofl:

[BeHereNow]

16. You're a musician too, aren't you?

Male or female?

As a female, I can't tell you how many times
those fucks in suits hinted at breaks for favors-
you know what I mean.

"Great voice" in that industry between suits usually means, well you know.

BHN

[Bluebear]

17. Also: "You've really got what it takes!"

[BeHereNow]

20. And "Just how far are you willing to go?"

"To pursue your career."

NO SHIT- I had an asshole in an office in Beverly Hills say that to me once.
He said one thing, but believe me, his message was not
directed at my music.

BHN

[Mass]

3. She was, but it is still stupid to do that.

[lapfog_1]

9. When I worked for the federal government...

We were told to not only avoid impropriety, but to avoid the appearance of impropriety.

Which meant that not only we couldn't route contracts to friends, but that we couldn't even accept a "dinner meeting" or party invitation from a POTENTIAL government contractor (even if they were not contractors at present, had no pending contract bids for evaluation, and we "knew" them from contacts outside the government).

Made going to various trade organization conferences really kinda boring.

[MNDemNY]

10. WTF?? Baucus has a girlfriend?

:spray:

[BeHereNow]

11. Disturbing images come to mind, no?

EWWWW!

BHN

[Nikki Stone1]

18. Ewwww! Ewwww! Ewwww! Ewwww! Ewwww! Ewwww!

Nothing to ruin a coffee break than to have to imagine a shriveled old dick getting a Viagra jumpstart.

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[Orsino]

14. Sleeping with her tainted the senator's ability to recommend her.

I hope he's apologized to her for the damage he did to her career.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

21. She could be very qualified, but that's not the problem.

If you are shtupping a Senator, you are probably disqualified from accepting his recommendation for a U.S. Attorney position, no matter how capable you are, because of the blatant appearance of favoritism. If you want to be a U.S. Attorney, don't be the girlfriend of the Senator who recommends you. It just doesn't look good.