"Mad Max" Baucus: Repeat Offender?

The usual trolls didn't think much of my post yesterday about Max Baucus and the "legal briefs" he consults for filling vacant U.S. Attorney posts, but it did remind folks here in CT that this isn't the first time Senator Max Baucus has been accused of trying to dip his pen in the company inkwell.

You see, a decade or so ago Baucus's chief of staff, former CT congressional candidate Christine Niedermeier, accused the Senator of trying to include a physical relationship as part of her job duties. (mind you, this was right in the middle of  the Senator's now lapsed marriage)

Last week my blood just didn't race in that Paula Jones way when Roll Call ran the story that Montana Senator Max Baucus, 57 and married, had fired his chief of staff, Christine Niedermeier, 47 and not married, under contested circumstances. He said it was because of staff complaints that she was a lousy manager who was causing staff defections. She said (and only reluctantly when she realized there was going to be a story critical of her) that it was because she had asked him to stop making sexual advances

It's also interesting given the recent concern over guest lists at White House state dinners that before the blowup Senator Baucus brought Ms. Niedermeier to such an event as his guest.    

Niedermeier did sue Baucus, but the suit was tossed because the deadline for filing such actions against members of Congress had lapsed. (No Lily Ledbetter law for them!). She now runs a solo law practice in a small CT town.  Quite a comedown from being someone who nearly was elected to Congress in 1987.

So, evidently Mel Hanes was an exemplary employee for Senator Baucus who deserves a high powered post at the Department of Justice; and Christine Niedermeier was a shrew who deserved to be kicked to the curb.  The fact one consented to a physical relationship with her employer and the other didn't obviously had nothing to do with the assessment the Senator had about one of his top subordinates.

Excuse me for not buying that one, Max.

There's an old line about one event being an incident, twice is a coincidence, and three times consitutes a lifestyle.

We have two incidents of Senator Baucus either confirming or being accused of having a relationship with a female employee. Can we have any confidence that this is the whole list, or is this going to end up looking like the Tiger Woods scandal if folks look under enough rocks?      

On that note, anyone really think that someone trying to bed a staffer in 1999 waited almost a decade before trying again?

It might be interesting to see if other former female Baucus staffers have landed plum jobs from his friends in the government and K Street,  dontcha think?  Like I said, this looks like a lifestyle for "Mad Max".

Over a decade ago, Republican Senator Bob Packwood was run out of office for exploiting his job so he could exploit women.   We haven't much progress in improving the ethical standards of the Senate if people are now speculating that the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee is up to the same monkey business.

One other thing. How many other Senate mistresses have the Obama Administration put on the public payroll? "Most ethical ever". Please!