An American Lion

Here’s a classic case of damage control, which comes about because someone has decided to drop to one knee and punch poor Max Baucus where he lives:

A spokesman for Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, said early Saturday that the senator nominated his girlfriend, a lawyer who worked for him at the time, for a United States attorney position last March.

The girlfriend, Melodee Hanes, worked for Mr. Baucus as his state office director and as a field director between 2003 and 2009. Mr. Baucus and Ms. Hanes were separated from their spouses at the time they became romantically involved in the summer of 2008, said the spokesman, Tyler Matsdorf. Ms. Hanes eventually resigned from her position, Mr. Matsdorf said, and both she and the senator subsequently divorced their spouses.

“Senator Baucus is currently in a mature and happy relationship with Melodee Hanes,” Mr. Matsdorf said in a statement. “They are both divorced, and in no way was their relationship the cause of their respective divorces.”

In March, Mr. Baucus, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, selected three candidates, including Ms. Hanes, for a United States attorney position in Montana and passed their names to the White House. Mr. Baucus and Ms. Hanes then decided that she should withdraw her name from consideration because the couple wanted to live together in Washington, Mr. Matsdorf said.

Basically, this is a Saturday morning disclosure, designed to minimize coverage and tamp down the outrage. Whatever aspirations Max Baucus has of taking Harry Reid’s job or being an elder statesman are intact. The culture of nepotism, corruption, greed, and incompetence continues unabated, and you can have your good government when they say you can have your good government.

In years past, the poor Senator would be seen shuffling away from his office, fully resigned from his seat and shamed into silence. Now, he sends out a spokesman, dumps it on a gullible press on a weekend, and flips off his home state constituents while his squeeze rubs his crotch and shoves someone else’s money into his pants. Literally, or figuratively, who cares anymore?

You can be rest assured, however, that the previous outrage among Democrats over the Bush-era Justice Department being “politicized” is very much an exercise in hypocrisy at this point if Senator Baucus is not thrown out of the Senate. Really, why would a U.S. Senator put a U.S. Attorney in power back home if not to ward off attacks, dole out favors, and maintain a firewall between him, his ethics, and whoever might notice an ethical problem?

No wonder poor Ex-governor Don Siegelman is still being railroaded. Democrats like their Justice that way.