An American Lion

Seasons Greetings from the House that Corruption Built as a Mockery to the Rule of Law

It keeps getting worse for Montana Senator Max Baucus. Luckily, these stories keep coming out on Fridays and Saturdays:

Sen. Max Baucus’girlfriend met with his divorce attorney in 2007, months before the senator and his wife separated, and later received a nearly $14,000 pay raise from Baucus as they were becoming romantically involved, a spokesman for the senator said Friday.

Melodee Hanes met with the senator’s divorce attorney at least twice in the summer of 2007 when she was director of Baucus’ Montana office, eight months before Max and Wanda Baucus separated, the senator’s spokesman said.

Baucus, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, recommended Hanes for Montana’s U.S. attorney post in February, by which time the two were in a romantic relationship. He has called the former state prosecutor “highly qualified.”

Hanes, 53, withdrew from consideration in March, saying she had received other opportunities she couldn’t pass up. She was hired in June as a top official in the Justice Department.

Baucus, who turned 68 on Friday, has said he began dating Hanes in the summer of 2008 after they were both separated from their spouses. The two began dating while Hanes worked for him and now live together.

Wanda Baucus, the senator’s second wife, said Friday that she knew nothing about the 2007 meetings and that the couple had not at that point discussed getting a divorce.

“I think this whole thing is very sad. It’s not the way you do things,” she said in an interview.

This is how things are going to be from now on? Okay, fine.

Just on the ethical violations alone, Baucus should resign from the Senate Finance Committee and think about retirement. I have to point out, though, that he’ll probably weather the storm and everyone will keep doing whatever they’re doing. But let’s call it what it is—a culture of corruption that knows no party line and no ideological boundary. Everyone feasting at the table in this whorehouse is corrupt, and you can have good government when they say you can have good government. Til then, keep quiet about the hired help and their $126,000 or more salaries.

What does $126,000 a year look like to someone in Montana, anyhow? What does it look like to someone who lost their job and is watching their benefits run out while Washington does nothing? What does that kind of guarantee of financial security look like to someone who will never have a chance at earning it? A pipe dream? The ticket to the good life? Or something that someone gets because they are willing to do whatever a U.S. Senator orders them to do? It must look like a lot of money, and it probably is. After all, we’re the ones paying it.