Harvard Law Professor Larry Lessig: The effects of Political Corruption on Voters. In this video Sen. Max Baucus is the focus of a lesson on Political and Public Corruption.
(Politico) Baucus: "No sense" in Ethics inquiry
Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on Saturday dismissed calls for the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate his recommendation that the White House consider his girlfriend for a top federal prosecutor’s position in Montana.
“I can’t understand why,” Baucus said when asked about calls for the panel to probe the matter. “I don’t understand why that’d be the case. Everything of it is straight up and up. I went out of my way to be up and up. That doesn’t make any sense to me.”
On Friday night, Baucus’ office disclosed that the senator had recommended his girlfriend, along with two others, for the White House to consider for the position of U.S. attorney in Montana. But as the Justice Department was reviewing the candidates, Baucus said his relationship with Hanes intensified, and the two decided that it was time for her to withdraw her name.
“At some point when we were becoming quite close, then I thought it made more sense and she thought it made more sense not to continue,” Baucus told reporters just off the Senate floor Saturday.
While GOP senators mostly stayed away from commenting on the matter, Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said the question that Baucus used his Senate office “to advance a taxpayer-funded appointment for his staff-member girlfriend raises a whole host of ethical questions.”
“This issue demands the attention of the Senate Ethics Committee,” Steele said. “They should hold a hearing to identify who was involved in this process, what they knew and when they knew it, and why Senator Baucus put his personal needs above those of the people of Montana.”
Democrats pointed out Saturday that the RNC did not call for an Ethics investigation into the sex and lobbying scandal involving Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.).
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Ethics Committee, declined to comment on a possible investigation.
But some members of the Ethics Committee seemed to expect Saturday that the panel would have to at least look at the matter.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who sits on the panel, said “if there’s any chance it may come up,” he didn’t want to comment on the controversy.
Melanie Sloan, who heads the watchdog group the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said she didn’t see the matter warranting an Ethics Committee investigation, saying that politicians on a regular basis recommend people who are close to them to get top spots in the administration, especially U.S. attorney positions.
“I think Baucus showed bad judgment,” she said, but added that the fact that Hanes withdrew from consideration makes it even more difficult for the panel to reprimand the senator.
Stan Brand, an ethics attorney in Washington, said that Baucus’ promoting of his girlfriend doesn’t seem to run afoul of any nepotism statutes or ethics rules.
Baucus and Hanes began their relationship in summer 2008, when Hanes was serving as Baucus’ state director, and both are now divorced and live together on Capitol Hill. Baucus took pains Saturday to argue that he was not having an extramarital affair with Hanes since both were separated from their spouses when the relationship began.
“It’s very, very happy in my life – where I am,” Baucus said. “It’s wonderful. … There was no affair.”
Baucus said that when there was an opening for the U.S. attorney position in Montana, Hanes put her name forward, which didn’t surprise him because she was “unbelievably qualified” with her background working in prosecutors’ offices and in the legal field.
He said six people applied for the job, and he submitted their resumes to a lawyer in Montana, a process that he said is “totally objective” and that he used to “totally get the best persons possible.” The lawyer came back with the three names, including Hanes’, and both he and Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) interviewed the three candidates.
Baucus then submitted the names to the Justice Department, but he said Saturday that he did not lobby administration officials to choose Hanes. And he added that the two later decided they did not want to carry on a relationship 2,000 miles apart, prompting her to withdraw from consideration.
Hanes later got a job as acting deputy administrator for policy in the Justice Department’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, which Baucus said she earned on her own merits, with no help from his office.
Asked if he should have recused himself from the process of considering Hanes this past spring, Baucus said he thought his long-used process to vet candidates yielded “sufficient objectivity.”
But Baucus said he didn’t know whether the third-party reviewer was aware that he and Hanes were carrying on a romantic relationship.
“I do not know if the vetter did or didn’t,” Baucus said. “The point is that when it became apparent that the relationship was becoming close, then it made sense for it not to continue.”
Baucus said he didn’t think the White House was aware of the relationship – or his close friend and former chief of staff Jim Messina, who is now the White House’s deputy chief of staff. And he said that he didn’t believe Messina played a role in the process of choosing the attorney.
Obama later selected Michael Cotter, who was one of the two other names Baucus submitted.
“I did not at all push” Messina or the White House to nominate Hanes, Baucus said.
Still, the Friday night disclosure of the unusual episode threatened to cause a distraction in the Senate’s historic health care debate, which Baucus is leading as chairman of the powerful Finance Committee. But Baucus said it would have “no effect whatsoever” on the health care debate, and that his colleagues were offering him encouragement on the Senate floor Saturday.
“All in all, I kind of wonder why someone called a blogger in the middle of the health care debate,” Baucus said in an apparent reference to the website Main Justice, which first reported the story Friday night. “I’m not going to insinuate anything but it seems a little interesting.”
Democrats came to Baucus’ defense Saturday and insisted the matter would not deter from their efforts to pass a bill out of the Senate by year’s end.
“No distraction,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) of the controversy. “Not in the least,” added Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.
Baucus informed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of the matter soon before the story broke Friday night, and Reid came to his defense Saturday.
“Max is a good friend, an outstanding senator and he has my full support,” Reid said in a statement.
(MSNBC) Aide: Baucus nominated girlfriend for Fed Post
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus was already involved with his girlfriend and former staffer when he recommended her earlier this year to become the next U.S. attorney for Montana, a spokesman said.
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 Montana in March. But she later withdrew, saying she had been presented with other opportunities she couldn't pass up.
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.
"Senator Baucus recommended each of the three candidates based solely on qualifications, and merit, knowing whichever one the White House selected would serve Montana well," Matsdorf said.
The spokesman said Baucus and Hanes decided during the nomination process that she should withdraw her name because the couple wanted to live together in Washington, which they later did.
Reason for disclosure?
Matsdorf declined to say why the senator was just now disclosing the circumstances surrounding the nomination, which was first reported in Roll Call, an online publication that covers Washington politics.
Baucus and his ex-wife Wanda announced last April that they planned to divorce after 25 years of marriage. In a joint statement, they said they have "parted ways amicably and with mutual respect."
Before the April announcement, Baucus said the couple had some "differences" in the marriage, which was his second.
Hanes started working for Baucus in 2002 and was his state director before leaving his office earlier this year for a position in the U.S. Department of Justice.
"Mel is supremely qualified and she got to her current position based solely on her merit," Matsdorf said.
President Barack Obama eventually nominated Helena attorney Michael Cotter for U.S. attorney, who supervises prosecutors of all federal crimes committed in Montana and the state's seven Indian reservations. Cotter is awaiting confirmation.
Baucus was elected to the Montana House in 1973 and to the U.S. House in 1974 and 1976. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1978 at age 36, and is up for re-election in 2014.
The senator has played increasingly visible roles in Congress, sometimes willing to buck his Democratic Party on certain issues. He seems to take the position that the state that sent him to the Senate for five terms is fundamentally conservative and its voters want someone willing to base votes on more than party lines.
At the center of health reform effort
Most recently Baucus has been at the center of an effort to move sweeping health care legislation through the Senate with a bill aimed at meeting Obama's goal of overhauling the nation's health care system to cover 48 million uninsured Americans.
Just on Friday, Baucus went against his party and backed a Republican effort to eliminate a long-term care insurance program to help seniors and the disabled. Republicans argued that the new plan would be a drain on the federal budget.
The Democrat has also been in the middle of other congressional battles: He played a key role in 2003 legislation adding a prescription-drug benefit to the Medicare program and enactment of President George W. Bush's tax cuts in 2001.
Baucus also has secured millions in federal funding for highways and billions in disaster aid for drought-plagued farmers and ranchers.
(Billing Gazette) County Prosecutor joins Baucus bid
Deputy County Attorney Melodee Hanes will be leaving her job to work for Sen. Max Baucus' re-election campaign.
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Sources: Politico, MSNBC, Billing Gazette, The Daily Beast, Daily World Buzz, Youtube, Google Maps
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