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As if it wasn’t enough for the taxpayers (and the economy) to get reamed by Max Baucus on Medicare Part D and his Senate Finance Committee health care bill, the LA Times is reporting that Max Baucus nominated his girlfriend for the US Attorney job:
The Montana Democrat and his former state office director Melodee Hanes began their relationship in the summer of 2008 after Baucus separated from his wife, Ty Matsdorf told The Associated Press late Friday.
Baucus nominated Hanes for the U.S. attorney post in March. But she later withdrew, saying she had been presented with other opportunities she couldn’t pass up.
If Baucus and Hanes began their relationship “in the summer of 2008,” she was still picking up a check from you through March of 2009:
| Employing Office | Start date | End date | Position | Amount | Notes |
| Senate Finance Committee | 12/10/08 | 12/19/08 | Senior Adviser | $ 3,111.09 | |
| Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) | 10/01/08 | 03/31/09 † | State Director/Senior Counsel | $ 54,722.14 | † to Dec 9 and from Dec. 20 |
| FY 2009 subtotal: | $57,833.23 | ||||
| Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) | 04/01/08 | 09/30/08 | State Director/Senior Counsel | $ 69,666.60 | |
| Senate Finance Committee | 11/27/07 | 11/29/07 | Senior Counsel | $ 895.83 | |
| Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) | 10/01/07 | 03/31/08 † | State Director/Senior Counsel | $ 55,979.07 | † to Nov. 26 and from Nov. 30 |
| FY 2008 subtotal: | $126,541.50 | ||||
Baucus played a key part in negotiating Medicare Part D and opposed price negotiation. He and the White House are responsible for the PhRMA and other medical stakeholder deals, that preclude the country from being able to control soaring medical costs for the next decade. Jon Walker says that insurance costs alone for a family of 4 will increase $1,000 a year as a result of the “deals” Baucus has cut. In addition to destroying the middle class, as Jon notes:
Business in this country will not be able to compete internationally in 8 years if they are paying the equivalent of an extra $10,000 health care tax on each employee.
But Max Baucus himself has made out astonishingly well. He has received $3,882,881 in contributions from the health care sector alone since 1989. That’s quite a tidy sum.
But alas, it wasn’t enough. He needed you to pick up the tab for his girlfriend, too, who didn’t divorce her former husband until December 2008.
As Marcy notes, having a Wellpoint VP write his health care bill was certainly worse in terms of its impact on the country. But the Hanes “affair” illuminates Baucus’s sense of personal entitlement when it comes to dealing with taxpayer money, something that should be an issue for the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
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Max Faucus!
Our expectations of government are lower than where the mop meets the floor of the bathrooms in Washington. Can we go lower? Prolly.
Max Fecks Us
At least this establishes a market value for Capital Hill whoredom. I hate to be so crude, but that is what it is.
Max or his girlfriend? :)
The girlfriend. But who’s paying Maxy’s bill?
Typical sleazy politician .
Are any of us surprised ?
Max Fuckus was re-elected in 2008. From the wiki article about him:
I’m sure his constituents will forget all about this by 2014.
my first thought was wondering if tamping this story down was the real “family emergency” of last week end
Gasp.
Who would ever have imagined this sort of thing goes on in Washington.
At least we can take comfort in knowing it is just an abberation. All the other folks in Congress approach their legislative tasks free and clear of campaign contributions from the very industries they are legislating.
Uh, right?
Actually, no. Instead, the exceptions are those who are not whores for the ATMs on K Street.
This is not democracy. It is Let’s Make A Deal.
Good eye! Do you have a link to a report of the “family emergency”?
If I could get close enough I’d like to punch this dirty old man right in the Viagra! This randy old cooter’s got his hand in my pockets to pay for his pleasures? EEEEEEEEEEEEEU! And, good point there cb!
Get some Hanes!
http://mergemedia.com/offers/accessories/hanes_shopping_spree.html
Very true. Democracy isn’t the problem. Max Baucus is the problem. And there are far too many like him who sleaze up our democratic system.
I can find one. although I believe it was supposed to be his mother – having an aged mother could prove handy
In response to roxsteady @ 12
The first time I read this, an image of this scene as literal – Baucus with his hands in your pockets as he’s being pleasured – formed in my mind before I could block it out and accept the metaphorical reference.
Disgusting.
Not only that, but her ethics and morals aren’t any better than his. She was a sleazy prosecutor in Iowa, where she was working with her husband to railroad people for child abuse.
They got run out of the state.
That’s why she dropped out of the USA nomination.
I have no choice but to live with Republican graft and sleezyness but Baucus’ claim to the Dem Party, my Party, is sickening. I lump him in with the other skumbags that will hang from the yardarm when we take over the world. he he
I only asked because I missed it at the time. The point is worth making and repeating!
Alas, Jay Walkers are no less prevalent in Montana.
In large part, democracy works the way it does in the United States Congress because so few citizens [in or out of Montana] pay any attention at all to either one. To either democracy or the Congress. I suspect there are large swaths of Montanans who can’t even name their Congressional representatives let alone display an understanding of how they are more beholding to Wall Street than Helena.
How do we wrench folks away from themselves long enough to point out how they are connected to others who have the power to make their lives better or worse? In the current economic crisis millions on Main Street are paying the price of not having a clue as to how money talks to effectuate policies that will in fact make their lives worse. Same with health care. Baucus and his ilk will create “reforms” that sustain the interests of the health care industry. That is not in the interests of most patients. But these patients are largely oblivious to how this all unfolds between New York and Washington.
Until that changes expect more of the same.
What? Linky?
I am so sick of these people I could throw up. AND I live in PA and pay for crappy Aetna insurance and now read that they will be dropping people because they actually have to pay them when they submit claims?
I’m as active as anyone.I make the calls, write the letters do what ever it takes. My husband committed suicide a little over 2 years ago and our struggle with our insurance was literally the last nail in his coffin.Eve wrote a dairy on DKos about this….
its time for national strikes and die ins..
funny – there isn’t a whole lot out there other than an almost universal but generic blurb about attending to a family emergency –
the girlfriend story is front paged on all MT papers this morning – wish whoever broke this story would have waited ’til Monday
The problem has always been the uninformed voter. Dean really had a good thing going with the 50 state program and that seems to be gone. The Democratic Party should be out there telling people what’s going on every day. Instead the Repubicans get the tv appearances and the Dems don’t say a word. The DCers in the Party make an appearance every 2 or 4 years and then fade back into the woodwork.
cybermome1207, I am so sorry for your loss. The die-ins have been happening w/o any notice by our insurance executives in the US congress.
I heard it was because of his mother..
Our state party officials told us the other day that they have been speaking loudly about retaining the 50-state strategy. We have paid staff here in our state from the national office, doing outreach, training and other activities. They say they will be active in countering the R meme.
well she’s in for a little more scrutiny now – believe her current DOJ position involves juvenile justice
Family emergency
thanks.
It’s over at the Great Orange Satan.
Max Baucus’ Mistress’ Interesting Past
(also someone needs some instruction in how to use apostrophes)
headed out for the day. bbl
and c’mon you guys, 30 comments and no mention of Oral Arguments or Briefs ?? you guys are slippin’ :D
How big – or small – of a new bit of info would it take to reinsert the story into the news cycle on Monday?
Let’s just hope Baucus responds to it. Surely something he’ll say will be stupid and easy called out and so pounced upon to keep a scandal involving sex in the news.
We were forced to picture Larry Craig in a public men’s bathroom doing what he was doing while playing footsies with another guy for weeks, so I’m sure the media would have no problem forcing us to continue picturing Max Baucus being disciplined by a woman wearing a tight leather outfit.
good to hear. The Rs never stop campaigning and we shouldn’t either.
Maxy baby could surely afford this with all his ill gotten gains
I certainly looks like the public option is dead along with the 45000 people that will die this year because of no health coverage.
Great diary. Thanks! A must-read.
Both parties wish to have an uninformed citizenry. I have long since lost my naivete that the Dems (at least inside the Beltway) are any different from the Republics in this regard. It sometimes is different at the State and local level, but not at the federal level.
Dean did a great job, and look how they treat him. I’ve gotten over my “disappointment” with Obama for not utilizing him more once BHO got in office. It’s becoming clearer that BHO is like any other politician, and after he was done using Dean, then BHO had no more use for Dean. Dean is really too much a “man of the people” and out to really represent citizens, not corporations.
So if citizens are largely unaware and unable to connect the dots: so much the better for the Beltway crowd. The media focuses mainly on Republic opinions, and other than some passing stabs made by BHO at Fake Noise, the Dems do little to get themselves and their opinions out there.
BAH. A pox on them all. And color me not surprised to learn the reality of who Max Baucus is. Yeah: on the take and ripping us off so he and his mistress can enjoy the fruits of viagra & my tax dollars. Thanks for nothing, Max, you and your mistress do represent the lowest of whoredom (no offense to sex trade workers).
it’s a twofer for Republicans – Ensign scandal/Senate Ethics Panel just now heating up and HCR ?!?! oh they’re gonna be all over this
really do have to head out – off to chicken friend land
thanks…
my daughter was arrested a few weeks ago along with other college students in front of BC/BS in Philadelphia..That’s her being carted away and me in the article
There’s not much Montanans can do about about Max in the foreseeable future. It’s our fault. We know it. It’s been a wake up call for all of us. He’s not our first embarrassment. Remember Conrad Burns? We would all prefer folks remeber Jeannette Rankin or Mike Mansfield.
In the meantime, there’s two areas that folks might explore if they want to hit Max where it counts.
The first is his position in the Finance Committee. Back in July, The Hill ran a story about how Senate Democrats could remove him from Finance.
Dems Warn Baucus With Gavel Threat
The voice FDL could add to a call to remove Max could be significant. At the time it appears to the casual observer Max may have brokered his vote on the Sotomayor confirmation to avoid Senate scrutiny.
Second would be a critical, in depth, examination of his actions during the whole W.R. Grace/Libby, MT affair.
These two areas could be a start in the movement to get Max the hell out of the Senate.
Besides, isn’t Finance going to be a key player in Climate legislation coming up? Is that why he keeps smiling? Or is he jusi half in the bag all the time?
see above
I’m still wondering why there are no laws preventing these corrupt slugs from doing such. Oh,is it because they write the laws and their friends control enforcement and prosecution?
Both political parties have the stench of organized crime about them. One just pretends to be far more evil than the other.
Fixed it for you.
Money Quote use that in every ad we run.
Alas, the DLC folks [the Clintons, Emanuels, Fords etc] who run the Democratic Party have no intention of being anything other than the Republican Party Lite.
Consider for example the sorry tale of the OFA…
Does anyone believe the purpose of Orangizing For America revolved around bringing people out into the streets to protest those out in the streets protesting Obama? No, it was after those 13,000,000 email addresses of course. A wonderful motherlode for fundraising.
In my view, the campaign Plouffe ran for Barack Obama was largely a fraud.
Although it may be too early to know for sure, Obama [so far] does not appear to be a man “of the people, by the people, for the people.” Not unless those people hang around with the Tim Geithners and the Larry Summers of the world. Bilderberg down to the bone.
All throughout the campaign I kept looking for the evidence that Obama had maintained close alliances with those he organized with in Chicago. I didn’t find it. He faked his way through the campaign and into the White House. And by that I mean he portrayed himself as someone truly dedicated to “changing the way Washington works” when he really had no intention whatsoever of doing any such thing.
I had friends who worked in this cyberspace generated operation and down on the ground [in and around Baltimore] they would point out over and again how far removed this effort was from the stuff that was going on in the 60s and 70s. I was a part of all that back then. Unfortunately I am not physically able to venture out of the house much [living as I am on disability] so I was not able to experience the gap myself. But everything I learned about it confirmed my friends anecdotal rendition.
Grassroots? Right.
So, naturally: “A few days before the inauguration, Obama announced, in effect, that Plouffe’s view had prevailed: Organizing for America would be securely housed within the DNC.”
Which means Rahm Emanuel and the DLC.
Of course! Bring it in inside the Democratic Party!! The party of the Blue Dogs; the party of Max Baucus, Chris Dodd, Chuck Schumer and all the rest of the revolving door types that run Congress. That run Washington.
Marshall Ganz:
“It’s much more an instrument of mobilizing the bottom to serve the top than organizing the bottom to participate in shaping the direction of the top,”
george:
Try to imagine Ceasar Chavez and Barack Obama sitting down and discussing EFCA. About sums it all up, right?
But none of this really makes any sense unless you are finally willing to accept what is obvious: that the Democratic Party and the Republican Party really are tweedldee and tweedledum when it comes down to fundamental economic and foregn policy issues. If you are willing to accept the proposition that the “battles” between them here are largely tactical scrapes revolving around a shared strategic investment in Wall Street so much becomes ever more clearer. From the Wall Steet bailout and healthcare “reform” to Afghanistan and China, the Democrats and the Republicans are the same people. They just haggle over the means to achieve [basically] the same end: sustaining the Bilderberg world on Wall Street.
In the end, OFA is more or less controlled….top/down…by the fake populists behind the curtain in both the Obama administration and large chunks of the Democratic Party.
Baucus Inc. is just part and parcel of all this.
Are we still paying for the salary of Desiree Rogers?
Nice to see that she was double dipping from the Finance Committee a couple of times there – conjugal visits to DC? I hear they do charge extra for “outcall” services…
When people talk about someone being evil, they are generally talking about someone like Bin Laden, perhaps a serial criminal, but in fact, our politicians weild power that commits far more evil than many of the people in our prisons. Baucus’s role in Medicare Part D resulted in many people unable to afford medication. His not allowing single payer to even be part of the healthcare debate assured that there will be NO REAL UNIVERSAL CARE and people will still be left out or the system. His callousness and willingness to basically take bribes is EVIL and many people will suffer because of his actions. Until we speak the truth about the evil our politians perpetuate, it won’t stop.
This is just the sort of thing that should be widely disseminated in the broader press. Including letters to the editor and as news stories that should air in the news shows. This sort of abuse should be widely exposed an not tolerated.
Scums like Baucus should be made to pay for every single instance of gross abuse of their office, of every single abridgement of conflict of interest in a relentless way. They should be very quickly disabused of the idea that they are entitled to a damn thing.
Airing these abuses is the only way to rid ourselves of these bought off worms.
As an aside and in marked contrast to these repugnant opportunists, I think we should start to promote and reward two Senators who appear to be both people of high integrity and who share the goals of the left and the majority of the people. These are Sherrod Brown and Dick Durbin.
They are both eloquent and speak from deep seated conviction. Either would be a vast improvement on Obama and it is not too early to start to voice opposition to his re-election. I for one have been convinced from the start that Obama is not fit for the presidency. He lacks any conviction and without that his actions carry no moral value. It is for that reason that he is so rapidly willing to bargain away the public’s interest at the slightest pretext.
Isn’t Dick Durbin from Chicago? High integrity?
Oh man, so sorry.
I know it’s prolly too late, (been out and about this am, snowing like crazy here in the northwest burbs of the nation’s capital today), but was wondering if maybe you, or someone, might help me find that story.
I’d really like to read it if someone can maybe provide a link. I suck so badly at searches that I’ve pretty much given up hope. I either get 10 million hits or zero, never anything in between to narrow down a search.
If not, I’m so, so sorry for your loss, and notice your name has 12/07 in it, and this is 12/09, and well, from your suggestion it was two years ago, guessing it was this time of year too. My sincere condolences.
As soon as I load it, this will be item 117 of my Obama scandals list.
So let me get this straight. He began seeing her after he separated from his wife. How noble of him. Are you sure she wan’t the reason for the separation. Like maybe he was doing it before he ended his previous wholesome family values marriage. Then to have the audacity to nominate a person that you have been having sex with, even if you are separated is perhaps the largest conflict of interest available. Did Max noptify anyone that he was schtuping her at the time of the nomination. Sex has been known to cause old men to become disoriented and have hazy judgement even when there is no Viagra. Well at least she doesn’ty work for an Insurance companty.
what you are advocating for is the missing link in this cushy effort. And it is that much more important now, because in the big picture things are going to get much, much worse. This is a bubble (the people) that’s being inflated by greed, and when it blows suddenly, it will not be pretty – so start protesting, dying in, mobilize physically now to prevent bloody chaos.
You forgot the largest Repub-lite in the administration Barrack Obama. Rahm is not an independent policy maker. He is a fixer. If the president told him to get a robust Public Option done, then Leiberman, Landreiu, Lincoln and Nelson would find horses heads in their beds when they woke in the morning. Just as now that is what progressives are seeing because the conservadem in cheif wants a triggered option.
Bad news for the Clinton haters, this is not Bill or Hillary or Rahm. It is Obama. He has not been tricked or maneuvered here. Now we have to hope for the best.
Statistically the affair starts before the separation over 90% of the time. She worked for him since about 2002 or 2003.
Some of the things that bug me are that he was in a position to pay her salary and cover her travel and lodging expenses through taxpayer money. Undoubtedly some of the business was actually personal.
Also the fact that he nominated her for AG and apparently didn’t bother to tell DOJ he was involved. If this is not illegal, at least it is unethical. If he’s doing this kind of thing, you know he’s doing other unethical stuff too.
“Bad news for the Clinton haters, this is not Bill or Hillary or Rahm.”
huh?!
“Now we have to hope for the best.”
Listen to Obama’s Hope message?
And this is suppose to surprise anyone?? He’s just like all his republican-wannabee colleagues.. AND just like the grown up retuglicans, he’s already getting envelopes of hundred dollar bills three times a week – just like the rest of the real live rethuglicans !!
Amen! Meet the new boss… same as the old boss. The man behind the curtin now is the same man who was behind the curtin during the shrubbery admin.
I wonder if they pay Dick Cheeeeeney big bucks to waddle out and growl on queue?? I’m beginning to think that the execrable Cheney family are just part & parcel of the whole Obamma/Emanuel/Summers/Geitner Kabuki show.
No, Durbin is from Springfield.
Would it be too much trouble for you to check such easily-obtainable facts before commenting?
BCBS is ready to call the cops alla time now. We had a press conference in front of their building but not on their property about 2 mos. ago, and they had their security people all over us every minute.
Man, I want to go get ME a job at that Senate Finance Committee: $900 for two days work; $3000 for a little over a week?
Think how much I could donate to the Marcy Fund if these bucks were rolling MY way!
LOL! good pun. can we impeach that rotten cocksucker?
Baucus and co can find enough taxpayer money for Wall Street bailouts, unnecessary wars, and appointed girlfriends. Yet are having a difficult time choosing the American people over Insurance company profits.
Enough!
Jane all have you seen this? Over at Huff Po..unable to link
Snowe Rejoins Dems At Public Option Negotiating Table
In a breakthough in Senate negotiations around a public health insurance option, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) sat down with centrist conservative Democrats for the first time Saturday since the bipartisan Gang of Six broke up shortly after returning from the August recess.
Since then, Snowe, the most likely Republican to cross the aisle on health care reform, has been meeting individually with Democrats, but had yet to rejoin negotiations in a formal way
$126,541.50
That’s one pricey piece of ass.
Ensign’s & his parents got a better deal @ $96K
nothing surprises me anymore.
Our Great Experiment has ended in failure. The fatal flaw in our founding document: it does nothing to shield our elected officials from the corrupting influence of capital.