More on "Mad Max"

From The Next Right:

...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.

I had forgotten about Niedermeier. One cannot help but wonder if Ms. Hanes realizes her days may be numbered? He's not my senator anymore, but who knew Max even had it in him? I mean this is a guy who uses a bedroom in his mothers house to claim Montana residency for crying out loud!

Mike

Baucus' Sweet "Melodee"

Update:

I like Ace's headline better....

Max Baucus: Hey, You Know Who'd Make an Outstanding US Attorney? My Special Friend. She Knows All About Oral Arguments, Legal Briefs, and Penal Colonies, If You Know What I Mean.

I'm Banging the Stuffings Out of Her, Is What I Mean.
—Ace

From Roll Call:

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

According to a source familiar with their relationship, Hanes and
Baucus began their relationship in the summer of 2008 – nearly a year before
Baucus and his wife, Wanda, formally separated in April. The Senator has since
divorced his wife.

Posted without comment from yours truly because if this had been Rehberg during the Bush administration, you know the Sinestra would be on it like a fat kid on cake.

Mike

Good Riddance Huck!

Though it's bit unseemly to be discussing the political consequences following the murder of 4 police officers (it certainly doesn't stop the Sinestra from their technicolor dreams of a Right-Wing Extremist™ carrying the latest issue of The Limbaugh Letter, or Glenn Beck book, under every stone!) I can only hope that we've reached the point where we can finally place the final nail in Mike Huckabee's political coffin.

Huckabee's decision to commute the sentence of the monster responsible for the murder in suburban Seattle represents the worst possible scenario of the nexus between religion and state that I can think of.

If there can be any silver lining to this tragedy let it be the removal, once and for all, of Mike Huckabee from the body politic. His influence, thus far, gave us a nominee in John McCain and now leaves in its wake the remains of 4 people who only wanted to do their job. As I mentioned over at Stacy's place, somewhere out there My Man Mitt is sipping on a glass of ice cold milk and grinning from ear to ear.

Mike

Buy the ticket, Take the ride

Following the Orlando visit of the Tea Party Express this past evening I had the distinct pleasure to meet two fellow bloggers. On the east-side of the Lake Eola bandshell during the event I met Barbara Espinoza of Scottsdale, AZ. Barbara blogs at American Freedom and ventured all the way from Arizona to Orlando to attend the final stop of the Tea Party Express. It was indeed a delight to meet Barbara, who has now become the newest entry on my daily reads list.

I have Barbara to thank, in part, for also having the opportunity to meet and spend some time with someone who's been on my daily reads list since it's inception. I always had the impression that Robert Stacy McCain, "The Other McCain" was the hardest working man in the business. After spending a few hours with him this evening, while he was trying to make deadline for a piece in The American Spectator, my impression was indeed confirmed. It's not often that I get to buy a ticket like this and just sit back and enjoy the ride but what a ride it was! It's not often that Hunter S. Thompson and Lewis Grizzard come up in the same conversation, and how we got there is anyone's guess, but I'll never forget it. How this guy continues to do what he does, by offering not only fresh content on a daily basis, but the original reporting that he finds the time to do on his own dime, in pursuit of nothing but the story, is a genuine inspiration. Put quite simply, they don't build 'em like that anymore.




It's been a good day.

Mike

Orlando Tea Party

Yeah, it's been a while...

This evening Rachael and I decided to attend the final stop of the Tea Party Express as it made it's way to Lake Eola Park in downtown Orlando. About 4000+ people showed up to protest higher taxes and the Pelosi/Reid/Obama plan for a government takeover of healthcare, among other issues. From a nascent movement that began on the heels of comments made in Chicago by Rick Santelli to downtown Orlando in a time span of 9 months I'm not sure if a lot of talking heads know what to make of these rallies. They'll find out soon. In the meantime I'll include some footage shot during the event.









Mike

A Nobel Shame

In Norwegian the phrase goes something like this:

Hva i helvete!

Roughly translated? WTF!

President Barack Obama on Friday won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," the Norwegian Nobel Committee said.

"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," the committee said.

Someone ought to remind the Nobel Foundation that Obama's first real job is to give people here at home "hope for a better future." Whether he's been successful thus far is anyone's guess, but more importantly I fear what the United States will look like in the next 3 years if Obama continues down the path he seems intent upon following. By the same token, since the Nobel Foundation seems intent upon fully embracing Hopeychangitude™ in the awarding of its Peace Prize, shouldn't it have considered the actions of a certain former president in providing "hope for a better future" for millions of Iraqis and Afghanis?

Mike

Now There's a Selling Point!

This doesn't happen often enough.

Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) received a handwritten note Thursday from Joint Committee on Taxation Chief of Staff Tom Barthold confirming the penalty for failing to pay the up to $1,900 fee for not buying health insurance.

Violators could be charged with a misdemeanor and could face up to a year in jail or a $25,000 penalty, Barthold wrote on JCT letterhead. He signed it "Sincerely, Thomas A. Barthold."

The note was a follow-up to Ensign's questioning at the markup.

So, one could be charged with a misdemeanor and receive a $25K fine for not signing up for ObamaCare? That's a selling point middle America, by which I mean the normative non-Progressive America, can surely sink their teeth in to! Hey, but at least these nut-jobs will ultimately get their wish one way or the other. Free health care whilst in prison, you know, just to wean them off the corporate teet.

Mike

(H/T The Politico)

Now That's Change™ I Can Believe In!

They hold me they were bringing a certain amount of Hopeychangitude to the Beltway....and they finally delivered.....

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the first time yesterday suggested she may be backing off her support of the public option. According to CNN, Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid "said they would support any provision that increases competition and accessibility for health insurance - whether or not it is the public option favored by most Democrats." When "asked if inclusion of a public option was a non-negotiable demand - as her previous statements had indicated Pelosi ruled out any non-negotiable positions," according to CNN. This was also corroborated by the Associated Press, and by Pelosi's own words, as quoted in those stories.

This announcement came just hours before Steve Elmendorf, a registered UnitedHealth lobbyist and the head of UnitedHealth's lobbying firm Elmendorf Strategies, blasted this email invitation throughout Washington, D.C.

Progressives...consider yourselves now free to commence the hand-wringing.

Mike

(H/T "Montana Fats")

Call It When You See It

Coming from perhaps the most overrated Progressive punk out there...

Still it did strike me as noteworthy that your basic tea party crowd isn’t the sort of crowd in which a Confederate flag is unwelcome. I feel like if you’d tried to bring this to a health care rally, folks would have gotten upset. But the tea parties, like a lot of big time conservative events, are a very racism friendly environment.

Confusing sentiment considering that not too long following the death butchering of Daniel Pearl we have the now supposedly serious and contemplative Matty dressing like this, you know, because it all "kewl" and everything.


Where I come from we have a name for people like this. Two hints. It starts with co*k and ends with sucker.

Mike