Baucus gave girlfriend $14K raise

Getting serious.

Ed Morrissey, Hot Air: The controversy over Max Baucus’ relationship with his staffer and her nomination for a US Attorney slot deepens today, with a Politico report that strongly suggests that Baucus used public money to favor Melodee Hanes. As their relationship turned personal in 2008, Baucus gave her a $14,000 salary increase. The story about Baucus’ withdrawal of Hanes’ nomination also got challenged:

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

Late last Friday, Baucus acknowledged his relationship with Melodee Hanes, whom he nominated for the job of U.S. attorney in Montana, after it was first reported on the website MainJustice.com. But he said that Hanes withdrew from consideration for the job when the relationship became more serious. The next day, he dismissed calls for an ethics investigation, saying, “I went out of my way to be up and up.”

Since his announcement, more details of the relationship have emerged, raising questions about a workplace romance between a boss and employee that Baucus tried to keep quiet and also contradicting his explanation for why Hanes’s nomination was withdrawn.

Jodi Ravi, a former reporter for the Missoulian revealed over the weekend that the paper informed Baucus in March that it was poised to publish a story about Hanes’s relationship with the senator and the fact that he had nominated her for the U.S. attorney job. The next day, Hanes withdrew from consideration. According to the Missoulian, Baucus’s office never acknowledged a relationship between the two, and the paper did not run a story.

This demonstrates why office romances are almost always a terrible idea, especially between executives and their staffers, even when intentions are honorable. As Newsweek’s Kate Dailey wrote earlier this week, Hanes had a record of serious accomplishment before going to work for Baucus. She had worked as a prosecutor for years, although not without controversy, and had a bright future even before joining Baucus’ team.