When news broke that Sen. Max Baucus had suggested the White House consider appointing his girlfriend a U.S. attorney, critics questioned whether the influential Montana Democrat misused his power to promote his lover and former aide for a high-ranking spot in the Obama administration.

But in a clubby Washington, where political connections are the coin of the realm when it comes to landing the next big job, Baucus's move is almost par for the course - even if it smacks of cronyism to those outside the Beltway. Senators of both stripes have long advocated former aides, family members, friends and fundraisers for key government slots - and that alone could be enough to spare Baucus any punishment from the Senate Ethics Committee.

For Baucus, pushing a former aide is far from unusual. The powerful Finance Committee chairman has seen at least 17 former aides join the Obama administration, taking on key roles in the White House, the office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Health and Human Services Department and other federal agencies. Another former staffer, Michael Punke, was recently nominated by President Barack Obama to be the U.S. ambassador to the World Trade Organization.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said there was nothing unusual about Baucus's recommendation of his girlfriend and former director of state operations, Melodee Hanes, to become a U.S. attorney in Montana.

"You know plenty of wives have worked in administrations," Kerry told POLITICO. "Was it a conflict of interest for Liddy Dole to [work as a Cabinet secretary in two Republican administrations] when Bob Dole was in the Senate? Please, c'mon. You don't think he recommended her?"

"By the way, Mitch McConnell's wife was in the [Bush] administration - don't you think he wanted her to do that?"

Don Stewart, a spokesman for McConnell, declined to comment. The Senate minority leader's wife, Elaine Chao, was the labor secretary under George W. Bush.

What makes the Baucus case unusual is that Hanes was neither his wife nor just another staffer. Baucus was in a romantic relationship with Hanes - and was still married to his wife - when he submitted Hanes's name, along with two others, for the White House to consider for the U.S. attorney position.

Baucus has said Hanes was very well-qualified for the post. And, as the two grew closer, Baucus said, both thought it would best if she withdrew - and neither wanted to carry on a relationship 2,000 miles apart. Baucus insisted that he had not been carrying on an extramarital affair because the two were separated from their spouses when their relationship began in the summer of 2008. The couple, both now divorced, live together on Capitol Hill.

But not everyone seems to think that merit alone was the cause for Baucus's decision to float her name to the White House.

"She was recommended for the position because of a very close and personal relationship with Max Baucus, and she withdrew because of a very close and personal relationship with Max Baucus," Thomas Bennett, Hanes's ex-husband, told the website Main Justice, which first reported the story Friday night.

The Republican National Committee's chairman, Michael Steele, said the use of Baucus's office to promote his girlfriend and aide for an appointment "raises a host of ethical questions."

But it's far from clear what legal question the Ethics Committee would ask of Baucus - and whether he'd face any serious repercussions even if an investigation is launched, especially since Hanes withdrew from consideration for the position, according to ethics experts.

"Does a romantic relationship change things?" asked Melanie Sloan, executive director for the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. It probably doesn't, she said, though "it makes it look a lot more tawdry."

Ethics experts say that the committee could look at what went into Baucus's decision to float her name to the White House and whether the criteria included his personal relationship with Hanes. But based on the facts that are now public, experts said that the most the committee would likely do would be to tell Baucus that he should have exercised more vigilance.

For U.S. attorneys, winning appointments because of political connections with a senator is far from unusual.

When a U.S. attorney spot was open in the Southern District of New York, one of the most powerful prosecutor positions in the country, Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer aggressively and successfully lobbied the White House to nominate his chief counsel on the Judiciary Committee, Preet Bharara. South Dakota Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson's son, Brendan, was confirmed this year as U.S. attorney in South Dakota, though Johnson's office said the senator did not urge the Obama White House to nominate his son.

In 2006, Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) successfully urged the Bush administration to nominate his cousin, John Wood, to replace Todd Graves as U.S. attorney in Missouri. In 2001, the late Sen. Strom Thurmond pushed for his son to become a U.S. attorney in South Carolina.

And connections can help make United States senators, as well. Joe Biden's ascension to the vice presidency opened up his Delaware Senate seat, and Gov. Ruth Ann Minner appointed Biden's longtime aide, Ted Kaufman, to the position. Next year, Biden's son Beau is expected to run for the seat. When Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) died in August, many believed that his wife, Vicki, who has not held elective office, was poised to take the seat if she wanted it. But she didn't make a push for the seat, and Gov. Deval Patrick, instead, selected Paul Kirk, a former Kennedy aide.

Stan Brand, an ethics law attorney who doesn't think Baucus will get punished by the Ethics Committee, said, "You shouldn't be disqualified because of who your boss was at any particular moment."

And he said that the Senate confirmation process is meant to root out unqualified nominees who may be chosen because of cronyism, among other things.

"I think there's an issue of who is the most qualified person for the job - but I think that gets addressed in the confirmation process," Brand said.

Baucus's office wasted no time getting Hanes's lengthy résumé out to reporters, from her training at the FBI's law institute in Quantico, Va., to her work at a county attorney's office in Billings, Mont. Hanes joined Baucus's campaign staff in 2002 as a regional finance director, later served as his state director and resigned earlier this year. After withdrawing her name from the U.S. attorney spot, Hanes was hired by the Justice Department and is now the acting deputy administrator for policy in the its Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention - a position Baucus said she got on her own merit.

"The point is that when it became apparent that the relationship was becoming close, then it made sense for it not to continue," Baucus said of her withdrawal from consideration as U.S. attorney.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30277.html