Friday Nights:
In the political world, Friday night is a great time to release a story that you want buried – to do minimal damage – to slide by without much notice.  That did not happen to Max Baucus Friday night or Saturday morning.

Friday night around 8:32 p.m. (Montana time) I received an alert with the Roll Call story about Max Baucus. Max Baucus has been in the news a lot lately because of the healthcare bill, so his name pops up a lot.  Instead of just deleting the latest of many alerts I read it.  Here is what it said:

Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus’ office confirmed late Friday night that the Montana Democrat was carrying on an extramarital affair with his state office director, Melodee Hanes, when he nominated her to be U.S. Attorney in Montana.

I subscribe to Roll Call, so I read the entire story and made a couple of calls and then posted the alert on this blog.  Soon it was all over the web.

It was a tactical release from the Baucus camp.  The DC media sensed something was brewing and were probably calling his office often to confirm.  In other words, the sharks were circling and Baucus’ spokesman probably held them off for a few days and, with all hands on deck, the spokesman issued a carefully worded e-mail release late Friday night confirming their suspicions.  

Taking a walk down memory lane:
Many folks may remember an incident that happened in 1999 when Baucus’ Chief of Staff, Christine Niedermeier, accused him of sexual harassment.  Baucus and his staff circled the wagons and that incident went away.  Baucus went on to being Montana’s Max.

Ms. Niedermeier is probably smiling today.

This most recent story spread across the web much like the “mulch-gate” story did about Baucus’ second wife, Wanda, getting into a tussle at a home and garden store.

Can’t Touch This – Or Can You:
Baucus cruised to re-election in 2002 and in 2008.  Recently he has lost his appeal with his supporters for the way he has handled the healthcare bill, coming in with only a 44% approval rating – lowest of the three federally-elected officials in Montana.

He’s also cruised through two wives in his lifetime, so far.

Ethical Lapses from Montana’s Senators (Yes, Senators):
From the different news reports, readers can ascertain that:

-Baucus was dating his State Director while he was still married.

-Baucus and U.S. Senator Jon Tester interviewed Ms. Hanes for the U.S. Attorney job.

-Hanes’ name plus two others were forwarded to the White House.

A Question:
Surely Sen. Tester knew Baucus and Hanes were dating as Baucus/Tester have basically lived together since Tester took office issuing joint press releases and eating donuts and drinking coffee on Wednesdays.  I wonder how the interview with Hanes went.

Tester’s staff cannot be too happy that Baucus’ spokesman tied Tester to this mess.  Tester will have to play dumb on this.  He will start with “it’s a personal matter” and the press should not let him get away that easy.

Baucus will use “it’s a personal matter” too, but it appears the national media won’t settle for that, unlike the Montana media.

What Now:
Is it time for the “I have sinned” speech?  I’m not sure that Max Baucus thinks he has done anything wrong.  There’s an “Ethics Committee” in the U.S. Senate and they should take a long look at Baucus dating someone he supervises.  The Justice Department should also look at how Ms. Hanes obtained that nice job in their department.

We’ll also see if Baucus speaks openly about it or dodges the issue through his spokesman.   Nonetheless, he is wounded as a Senator.

On the other hand, the GOP cannot squawk too much because they have had several ethical problems on their side of the aisle, too.

One thing for sure, Baucus has embarrassed his state, just as Senator John Ensign did to Nevada, and John Edwards did, and David Vitter did and Larry Craig did and so on…

Baucus also has to live with this on his senate record and in the history written about his (almost) lifetime of public service.  That record has been mediocre at best.

Political Junkies – The Races Are Shaping Up:
Besides the Montana U.S. Senate 2012 race being in play with a weak first term senator up for re-election, the 2014 race has become more in play in the last 24 hours.  It may even be an open seat.  But with only one credible candidate for statewide office (Congressman Rehberg), it would be tough for other GOPers to jump in and win either seat.