Max Baucus’s girlfriend Melodee Hanes got a $14,000 pay raise and was taken on trips with PUBLIC MONEY

max-baucusThis isn’t quite on the level of Mark Sanford who’s wife has filed for divorce today, but its not far off. While Max Baucus didn’t pop off unannounced to South America to visit his mistress, instead he used our tax payer money to give a raise to his girlfriend Melodee Hanes and pop off to Asia with her on our dime. While Baucus isn’t a sitting Governor of a state like Sanford is, Baucus is chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee and the author of the current Senate ObamaCARE bill. According to Politico, he gave a nearly $14,000 pay raise to a female staffer Melodee Hanes 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.

But thats not all. According to Fox News, Melodee Hanes, Baucus’ former state director and now his live-in girlfriend, reportedly met at least twice with the Montana Democrat’s divorce attorney to talk about the Baucuses’ divorce eight months before the senator and his wife separated!

Hanes, Baucus’ former state director, reportedly met at least twice with the Montana Democrat’s divorce attorney eight months before the senator and his wife separated.

That revelation, reported by Lee Newspapers on Thursday, adds a twist of intrigue to a story that broke last week when Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, acknowledged to Mainjustice.com that he was in a relationship with Hanes when he nominated her for U.S. attorney.

Baucus has been on the defensive ever since as details have emerged, including a Politico report Friday that Baucus gave Hanes a $14,000 raise last year and took her on a government-funded trip to Asia and the Middle East.

Hanes withdrew her nomination in March and now works at the Justice Department; she and Baucus, both divorced, now live together in Washington.

In the summer of 2007, Hanes met with Baucus’ attorney, Ron Waterman, who worked on the senator’s April 2009 divorce, according to billing documents obtained by Lee Newspapers.

Wanda Baucus told the newspaper she knew nothing about those discussions in 2007, and she said she and her husband had not discussed divorce at the time.

“Ending a 25-year marriage is a serious undertaking that should be discussed first within the family,” she told the newspaper. “There’s no justification for the staff being involved in such private matters.”

A Baucus spokesman, Ty Matsdorf, told the newspaper that Hanes met with Waterman in her official capacity as a member of Baucus’ staff.

“Melodee Hanes’ interactions were in her official role as state director and focused on scheduling and logistics, including how a potential separation between Sen. Baucus and (his ex-wife) Wanda could impact the senator’s travel and work,” Matsdorf said in a written statement.


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December 11, 2009 · Filed Under Democrats, Max Baucus, congress

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