One of the chief architects of the healthcare reform efforts in the Senate has been Max Baucus, Chairman of the Finance Committee and Senator from Montana. Besides wanting to spend nearly $1 Trillion worth of your money on a government takeover of healthcare, Baucus, it seems, has also been spending taxpayer funds to lavish his live-in girlfriend, who happens to have been a long-time former staffer.

Baucus is no stranger to controversy of course. He has as many as two-dozen former staffers now positioned as high-paid K Street lobbyists and was associated with the famous Jack Abramoff scandal, being forced to return thousands of dollars associated with the convicted lobbyist. This relationship with Melodee Hanes though, may take the cake.

Hanes was Baucus’ State Director, meaning she was supposed to manage his efforts back home in Montana, however she accompanied him on numerous trips to the Middle East and Asia, even though foreign policy had no bearing on her job back home and she had no expertise in the matters being discussed on the trip. This “junkets” are often taken by members, sometimes with spouses and relevant staffers along for the trip. Senator Baucus needs to justify why he was taking his State Director along with him. Was this a taxpayer funded date where the Senator used his influence to woo his staffer?

Politico is also reporting that Baucus gave Hanes a nearly $14,000 raise in 2008, then nominated her a position as U.S. Attorney in Montana. When the Missoulian, a newspaper back in Montana, got wind of the appointment they informed Baucus of their intention to publish a story about it. Suddenly, Hanes withdrew her name from consideration for the job and was instead awarded a job at the “Justice Department’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention as a counselor to the administrator.”

It now seems that Melodee Hanes got herself involved with Baucus’ divorce attorney, meeting with the lawyer “eight months before the senator and his wife, Wanda, separated.” So let’s just review this for a minute. Senator Max Baucus had an affair while married in 2008 with his State Director. The relationship eventually involved Baucus taking his mistress on several taxpayer funded trips, securing her a large raise, a nomination to a key Federal position, and a swell post at the Justice Department. Ah… the life of the Washington elite!

We could play the “if he was a Republican he’d already be under an ethics investigation, on the cover of every newspaper and tabloid, and on his way to resigning” game, but we all know it doesn’t matter. The Democrats have been turning a blind eye to scandal, impropriety and outright criminal acts in their own party for years now. They just don’t seem to care.

I guess one thing is clear, it’s good to be Max Baucus.