Baucus News and Views
Baucus Story: Reactions to Girlfriend Not All Pretty
One columnist writes "Ax Max." Others leap to the Montana Senator's defense. But there's a new wave of blogging about Baucus.By Amy Linn, 12-08-09
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| Photo by Carolyn Bunce, courtesy of Baucus office. | |
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Update: Since this story was posted yesterday, Time magazine has added a fairly nasty article to the mix, entitled ”Max and his Women,” with what’s-this-got-to-do-with-it details about the ex-spouses of both Hanes and soon-to-be 68-year-old Baucus, who “has been involved with his share of feisty women,” Time declares. The Missoulian has followed up its able coverage with a story stating that former reporter Jodi Rave questioned Baucus about his relationship with Hanes, and the next day, Baucus sent an email statement saying her candidacy for U.S. attorney had been withdrawn.
On day four of the Max-and-Mel saga, news media and bloggers around the country continue to weigh in on whether Montana Sen. Max Baucus made a faux pas or a no pas when he recommended his girlfriend, attorney Melodee Hanes, for the job of U.S. attorney in his home state.
The news broke Friday that Baucus had been dating Hanes, an attorney and former staffer. Baucus said he and Hanes decided to withdraw her name from consideration after she moved to Washington and they began living together.
But today’s Wall Street Journal online features the revelation that Baucus didn’t disclose his relationship with Hanes to White House officials, to fellow Montana Democrat Sen. Jon Tester, or to Montana attorney Dana Christensen, who was reviewing six candidates for the U.S. attorney post.
“I’ve known Max a long time. I’ve known Mel Hanes a long time. But I did not know that they had a relationship,” Christensen told Journal reporters Brody Mullins and Julie Jargon.
The story goes on to say that ethics lawyers and supporters think Baucus didn’t say anything because he didn’t want to appear to be pressuring anyone into choosing Hanes. “That’s a good fact because there is obviously a little bit of a tendency to want to accommodate the senator,” Kenneth Gross, an ethics attorney with the Washington, D.C.-based law firm Skadden, Arps, told the Journal.
Other sources pointed out that Baucus—head of the powerful Senate Finance Committee—couldn’t actually nominate Hanes for the job (that job is for President Obama). He could only recommend her, which is likely not an ethics violation.
The Republican National Committee, for its part, reacted to the news by calling for an investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee. (There’s no certainty that such an action will be taken since one of the three Democrats on the six-member committee would need to join Republicans and vote in favor of the idea).
Beyond the calls for investigations, though, are the calls for Baucus’s head.
In a Counterpunch blog-rant entitled “Ax Max,” activist/actress Margot Kidder (of Superman movie fame) describes Baucus as part of a horde of “pretend Democrats” who are “much more dangerous than Rush Limbaugh could ever hope to be.” And worse.
“Baucus is the the most anti-charismatic Montanan in the state,” writes Kidder, a Livingston, Mont., resident. “The hideous truth is that this empty suit-person almost singlehandedly took the reform out of health care reform, has introduced and somehow passed more legislation to abet the cornucopia of crime that is our banking system than anyone else in Congress, and has stalled the funding of any, if not all, modern programs that would give financial lifeboats of one kind or another to families in need. He did it by pretending he was a Democrat and by hanging in there long enough to get appointed, almost by default, as chair of the banking committee. And he gets elected in a state with the fourth lowest per capita income in the country by consistently ‘bringing home the pork.’
“The mainstream media calls Max Baucus and other Democratic blackmailers ‘centrists.’ As compared to what, Chiang Kai-Shek?
A Washington Post blog by writer Ruth Marcus offers a gentler rebuke. “Max, Max, Max: You don’t push for your girlfriend. ... It would have been perfectly acceptable for Baucus to urge that a longtime staffer be given the prosecutor post. That same recommendation becomes inappropriate when sex is involved,” Marcus writes.
And is there a pro-Max voice in the wilderness? Yes, from many supporters and Democrats who stand by him (including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada). And from a New York Daily News blog by Michael McAuliff, which bears the headline Non-Job of Baucus Girlfriend Is Non-Scandal.
“The worst you can say about Max Baucus nominating his girlfriend to be U.S. attorney, based on what we know now, is that it was not a great idea,” McAuliff writes. “But scandal? Not so much.”
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Comments
There was an old Senator named Baucus,
Who's late midlife behavior got raucous,
All the girls on his staff
Would often whisper and laugh,
When he'd invite them to bed for a caucus.
Soon Max saw what blind men can see,
The fact that old guys don't get it for free
If you want to impress 'em
So that you can undress 'em
Tell her you'll make her the U.S. Attorney!
When the press learned about Max's scheme,
They decided to play on his team,
So they kept the story quiet,
'Til Max couldn't deny it,
Then the hypocrites started to scream.
They pretended that they didn't know
That Max left his wife for a pro,
But they'd known for a year,
And soon Montana would hear,
They were shacked up in Max's chateau!
So the next time you do something rash,
And you don't want your dentures to gnash,
Remember - the Senator who gets lecherous,
Causes the press to get treacherous,
So don't pay with a job, just use cash!
Do not for a moment think that I condone his actions. He was wrong, he committed a situation that is taboo. However, his lady friend never was offered the position, never was put into the job he had suggested her for, and therefore, this all enters into a grey zone. A “what if” situation. We could go on with the “what if’s” forever. What if she had received this job……….. If she had, what if this had happened or what if that had happened? We’ll never know, as it never happened.
I am more interested with who released this information, and for what purpose? Who ultimately gained from this knowledge (gossip) that we all know so well. Someone profited from this. Who, and for what reason? They accomplished their mission for sure. Have we all fallen into their trap and reacted just as “they” predicted. Of course.
How, just tell me, how can he be SO stupid as to advance his current paramour for US Attorney? It is not about her qualifications, her abilities. It is about his being dumber than a bucket of rocks, a dog's dick. The health care deal is under the leadership of a dolt. He has brazenly arranged for tens of millions in pork to flow to multinational corporations in the framework of tax forgiveness. Why in the hell the Weyerhaeuser Company deserved or got a $178 million dollar tax break from Max in the Farm Bill is beyond me. In a recent article about the great fortunes of America, Weyerhaeuser, in todays dollars, was and is one of the ten largest ever in America, from the fur trading Astors, to the oil baron Rockefellers to Buffett and Gates today. That more than stinks. It is a travesty. And so is his attempt, albeit aborted, to slip his sweetie of the moment from his bed to the US Attorney's office in Montana. The man has no shame. And I never, ever, thought I would be on the same side of any argument as Margot Kidder.
I guess the archleft (look at Kos) aren't going to defend Max although his staff choices have been their dream choices. But all would be forgiven were he politically correct on the health care, eh?
Conservative/Republicans wear their morality and propriety on their sleeve so when they experience this kind of indiscretion, the ridicule and humiliation is harsher.
However, Conservative/Republicans are more likely to be contrite, apologetic and may resign.
Liberal/Democrats simply do not see the problem because they cannot tell the difference between right or wrong.
"A woman is a funny thing, she makes a man a fool,
She gives him a lot of trouble and wears away his tool,
When a man climbs on a woman, he climbs on like a lion and rolls off like a lamb,
And when he buttons up his pants he doesn't give a damn,
Oh! his sporting days are over and his lights are burning out,
What used to be his sex appeal is just a water spout!
(except for Viagra, Cialis, & Levitra) (A very old ditty)
And in amazement we wonder why things have devolved to the current sorry state of "affairs".
I'm guessing mick still thinks a meme is a typo...
The simple truth is that Baucus needs a minder, and fast. He needs someone to plan his every minute of every day, and he needs that person to vet any and all ideas, appointments, hires, and who he even talks to on the phone or emails. Without a good minder, Baucus is going to take the fatal career step, soon, because we already know he is more than flawed. He is buck ass nakedly stupid. You can put makeup on butt ugly, but you can't cure stupid. He is now the pig with lipstick, which is not going to soothe the American voter's appreciation of the Health Care Sausage, if they can ever get it properly stuffed. Find him a minder!!!
(from Politico http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30478.html)
Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, gave a nearly $14,000 pay raise to a female staffer in 2008, at the time he was becoming romantically involved with her, and later that year took her on a taxpayer-funded trip to Southeast Asia and the Middle East, though foreign policy was not her specialty.
Estimates float about that Genghis Khan "sired" thousands of offspring. A very "alpha" kind of guy, and without question, a full-blown psychopath. Thank you Genghis, for successfully passing on your D.N.A. and making certain parts of the world the idyllic places they are today. Full of psychopaths.
I'm not about to endorse the "sensitive kind of guy" thing as an opposite either, as that appearance is often a mask, a convenient characteristic used by some men solely to bed women, just as some women are more easily seduced by the "rugged individual" kind of guy. Hell, a lot of those "sensitive guys" are about as sensitive as a 6"X"6". None of this is the point.
What is the point is that there have been plenty of Alpha Males who honored their word and their commitment to such. A short number of decades ago, they constituted the majority of men in this country. These were men of virtue and men of honor, and any of the lot could wipe the floor with Baucus any day of the week. They were and are the kind of men that Baucus no doubt has assiduously avoided.
Garcia mistakenly equates Bacus' behavior as some Alpha Male characteristic, when all he is as are so many like him, nothing but a a hound dog chasing females. In his current case, Mr "Alpha" is no doubt hitting the Viagra and Cialis.
Max hasn't and never has had the character to go face down a real "Alpha Male" over mating rights to a female. Like every other gutless whoremonger and seducer, Max isn't out there fighting another male - he's the type who sneaks around and scores when there's a minimal chance of confrontation, if any.
Alpha male, my ass. He's a hound dog chasing tail at taxpayer expense. He is a man without morals, without virtue, without honor, and given his public record, a man woefully short on ethics as well.
As Bearbait points out, it is the damned psychopaths and sociopaths who rise to the top, as long as they remain personally non-violent and leave the true dirty work to others. In fact, these creatures leave nothing but trails of broken souls and bodies behind them. To quote a psychologist who specializes in their study, "It is as if they have no soul." Estimates are that as much as 4%-6% of the population is psychopathic, humans, if we should call them such, who are literally "without conscience". Co-workers, bosses, so-called "professionals", clergy, politicians, husbands, wives, brothers and sisters.
Think about how many people you have met in your life who have done things, things that it seems no one else would ever do. Lie. Backstab. Cheat. And never think twice about it. No conscience that limits their thoughts, actions, behaviors. All of a sudden there's quite a few, aren't there?
While Garcia ponders biology in his dotage and imagining the alpha male thing, Bearbait apparently has been doing some reading. My guess would be "Snakes in Suits" by Dr.'s Hare and Babiak, The Sociopath next Door" by Martha Stout, and perhaps "Political Ponerology" by Dr. Andrew Lobowescki. You will find Max Baucus in all three of those books, as well as many greater and lesser figures, both current and historical, who all share the same traits. And people you know and many you wish you never had.
It isn't "Alpha" behavior at all, rather, it is a manifestation of insanity. It is psychopathic behavior. It is a deviant and destructive trait. The last thing the human race needs is to be inundated with the more spawn from the likes a Baucus, et. al. Genghis Khan and millions of his lesser imitators have done enough damage without more ills foisted upon us from destructive strains of D.N.A.
It has been determined that psychopaths actually have different brain structures than "normal" humans, as M.R.I. studies have shown. Every politician running for state of federal office, as well as high-level political appointees, should be forced to undergo M.R.I. screening before they are allowed to either run for office or be appointed to high position.
Save the country, save the world.
I'm afraid your postings are starting to say, or at least imply, more about you than you might want. Max is a disgrace and his mistress is a...; let's just leave it at that.
No more verses to be added unless we get more juicy revelations!
A Position for her Submission
There was an old Senator named Baucus,
Whose late midlife behavior got raucous.
All the girls on his staff
Would often whisper and laugh,
When he'd invite them to bed for a caucus.
Old Max was the last to admit
That at romance he wasn't a hit.
Though his son's name is Zeno,
He'd be dating Janet Reno,
If he relied on his charm and his wit.
Finally Max saw what blind men can see,
The fact that old guys don't get it for free.
If you want to impress her
So that you can undress her
Tell her you'll make her the U.S. Attorney!
At last Max got a sucker to bite,
A lady lawyer not particularly bright.
He kept her lust ablaze,
With a fourteen thousand dollar raise,
To insure that their coupling stayed tight.
Our Max had finally learned to philander,
But he couldn't face his wife in all candor,
So he decided to outsource
The negotiation of his divorce
To the Jezebel with whom he chose to meander.
When the press learned about Max's scheme,
They decided to play on his team,
So they kept the story quiet,
'Til Max couldn't deny it,
Then the hypocrites started to scream.
They pretended that they didn't know
That Max left his wife for a pro,
But they'd known for a year,
And soon Montana would hear,
They were shacked up in Max's chateau!
So the next time you do something rash,
And you don't want your dentures to gnash,
Remember - the Senator who gets lecherous
Causes the press to get treacherous,
So don't pay with a job, just use cash!
Finally done,
Charles Ulysses Feney
Livingston, Montana
This gets funner and funner. Was Larry Craig there with "Freezy" and "Angel?" I just sit here and giggle this is so damned funny. True or not, you just have to know that there are now going to be all kinds of real, real, real upset people. Lovers past and present. Wives past and present. Taxpayers, and isn't there a Senate committee on ethics? Or is that an oxymoron? No matter. I guess great swordsmen live and die by the sword...those mortal men just like us who make worldly mistakes from time to time...escorts with AIDS...that really adds to the mixture. And even it is most likely, probably, not true, the Tiger Woodsian aspects of it just paint more color on the picture of a Congress so far out of contact with the real world...OR, an electorate so naive and ignorant of what the real world is all about. Either way is a sad, sad commentary on the State of the Onion....you have to know when those Senators have the big staff, and all those people who live or die by his stroke of a pen, his personal discretion, hijinxs and foofraw are happening all the time....The guys are bullet proof...no real accountability to anything but PR releases, gathering the fuel of a campaign--money, and sending tidbits of monetary largesse to those who scratch his back with vigor and tenderness. I guess I would be pissed if it really was taxpayers who paid the purported escorts, and not say, Weyerhaeuser or Plum Creek Timber, both of which have gotten really good deals from Baucus in favorable legislation and set ups to future financial benefits..at the least, I could understand their hiring escorts for two lonely guys in a strange town....but taxpayers?? nobody is that dumb....excuse me...I forgot...I guess Baucus could be that dumb as recent events have been showing us....