It’s a Democrat this time – Max Baucus. Baucus was in the news quite a bit this summer and fall because he heads the Senate Finance Committee. He also indulged in an affair. The details of the affair actually aren’t that scandalous, Baucus was separated when the relationship started and he and his wife subsequently divorced. The eyebrow raising part is that Baucus nominated his girlfriend to be U.S. attorney for Montana.
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.
Hanes ended her employment with Baucus in the spring of this year.
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.
Baucus needs to explain his actions.