Max Baucus Gave His Girlfriend the Sexiest Gift of All: Taxpayer Dollars

Last week we learned that once upon a time Max Baucus nominated his ladyfriend, Melodee [sic] Hanes, for a U.S. attorney job in his home state of Montana. Ooooh, scandalous-ish. Except Hanes withdrew from consideration after realizing that the setup was inappropriate, so she didn't get the job, the end.

Except it's not the end. Today those four magic words scrolled through the ol' feed reader: more details have emerged…

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, gave a nearly $14,000 pay raise to [Hanes, then his 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.

Okay, $14k for having to date Max Baucus, that sounds fair enough.

Tags: Corruption, Max Baucus, Money, Senate, Sex