Baucus-gate: Dem. Montana Senator Max Baucus Nominated Mistress Melodee Hanes to US Attorney Office in Montana

Once again we are provided with the age old adage … it’s not what you know, it’s who you know or in this case, who you are sleeping with.

Baucusgate: Imagine that, Democrat Montana Senator Max Baucus nominated his main squeeze to to be a candidate for the position of United States Attorney for Montana. What made her decline? The appearance of impropriety? The fact she received the nomination because of who she was dating? Nope. Melodee Hanes got a better job offer and moved to Washington, DC to live with boyfriend Max Baucus. How special.

Really, I got my job the old fashion way … I earned it

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.

But as The Gateway Pundit states, it is all ok … because Baucus is a Democrat. No news here. No play for pay. No preferential treatment to hire the girl friend. Because here is her resume that can stand on it’s own. Sure is an awful lot of Baucus references on that resume.

Isn’t this priceless, Hanes is now employed at the Justice Department’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention as a counselor. Just the type of home wrecker, person we need counseling juveniles.

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.

From Powerline comes Hanes impeccable credentials to serve as a United States Attorney.

Bernstein also comments on Ms. Hanes’s qualifications to serve as United States Attorney: “[S]pending the last six years working as a Senator’s field office and state office director (i.e., not even working as a lawyer) hardly seems like the kind of credentials one expects from a U.S. attorney candidate, and certainly not one purportedly recommended ‘solely on the basis of her credentials.’”

Bernstein credits Main Justice with breaking this story and with securing this testimonial from Ms. Hanes’s ex-husband: “She was recommended for the position because of a very close and personal relationship with Max Baucus and she withdrew because of a very close and personal relationship with Max Baucus.”

Exit Question: Are live in girl friends covered under Max Baucus’ Senate health care bill?

UPDATE I: GOP Calls for Ethics Probe of Baucus for Nominating Girlfriend for U.S. Attorney