![sen. max baucus Sen. Max Baucus/gov photo](https://ticklethewire.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/sen.-max-baucus-214x300.jpg)
WASHINGTON — They say “politics makes strange bedfellows” and Sen. Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat, can certainly attest to that.
The news website Main Justice reports that Justice Department official Melodee Hanes, a former Baucus staffer, who is in a relationship with Baucus, withdrew her name as a finalist for the U.S. Attorney job in Big Sky Country “in order to live with the senator in Washington.”
Baucus nominated Hanes while he was having a relationship with her and she served as his state director, according to Roll Call. She withdrew her nomination, and shortly after stepped down as a Baucus staffer.
![melodee hanes -facebook Melodee Hanes/facebook photo](https://ticklethewire.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/melodee-hanes-facebook-199x300.jpg)
Main Justice’s Andrew Ramonas reports that Hanes’ ex-husband Thomas Bennett said: “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.” Bennett and Hanes divorced in 2008.
To read more about this tangled web, go to Main Justice.
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