Max Baucus, Democrat Senator from Montana, is the chairman of the Senate Finance committee and his Glacier PAC has donated $10,000.00 dollars to Paul Hodes for Senate. Baucus may be best known for his influence on Health Care reform or Climate change legislation. But what he should be known for is his relationship with lawyer/staffer Melodee Hanes, (here, here and here) whom he left his wife for, and also nominated for a job as US district attorney from Montana. (then there’s this) Talk about inside baseball. But banging a staffer, dumping your wife, and then trying to hook-her up with a well paying federal job–even if it is love–demands questions about your core values and integrity so it’s a good thing he’s a democrat.
If Baucus was Mark Sanford for example, the media would have hung him from the pillory by his man-parts and shamed him out of seeking higher office which makes you wonder if Mark Sanford would have faired better if he’d tried to get his Argentinean mistress a job at the State Department? Buy her a blue dress and hello Oval Office? I guess we’ll never know, but since Baucus is a powerful Senator and a democrat, everything about it is a non-scandal-scandal to the unbiased media so he was never in any serious danger over that cozy relationship; but should it make Paul Hodes think twice?
Another cozy relationship Baucus seems comfortable with is the revolving door. Dozens of his staffers have gone from working for him to lobbying him on behalf of major finance, energy companies, and insurance and health care providers on all of President Obama’s signature legislation. That works out well when you are the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and at the forefront of health care and energy legislation in the Senate—which, without coincidence, Baucus is.
So you might not be surprised to hear his PAC and Senate campaign donors are all well positioned to benefit from that relationship, one that helps him craft or direct legislation to their mutual advantage. And while he’s nowhere near the top of the Senate pork list, he still appropriated over $108,000,000.00 million dollars in 2010, and has no interest in earmark reform, having consistently voted against it throughout his career.
Another plus, and make that a minus for anyone who takes money from anyone who took money from a company that was charged or fined by the SEC; Baucus has broken the sacred NHDP fiscal bride head by taking over $75,000.00 dollars from securities fraud perp Goldman Sachs, accepting $48,900.00 in the 2010 cycle, and $27,000.00 back in his 2004 cycle.
I guess it’s a good deal for Hodes. He can’t possibly take issue with a donor who is so well connected to corrupt money, revolving door lobbyists who used to be staffers in his own office, has no interest in earmark reform, and humps a staffer, dumps his wife, and then tries to use his Senate cred to squeeze her into a job as a federal prosecutor in his home State.
And there’s no conflict with taking $10,0000.00 dollars from Max Baucus and the Glacier PAC because thanks to Hodespocrisy you can just run on everything your donors (and future peers) are "not," and still insist that people take anything you have to say seriously.
Hodespocrisy part 1 (Sen Dan Inoyue D-HI)
The Post that lit the Hodespocrisy fuse
