News broke this morning that Senator Max Baucus had recommended his girlfriend for a US attorney job. Earlier this year, Baucus nominated Melodee Hanes, his state director and girlfriend, for the post, along with two others. He later withdrew her name.

During her time in Baucus’s office, Hanes collected plenty of taxpayer money at the Senator’s discretion.

But that wasn’t the only benefit Hanes received at public expense: Baucus and his staffer-girlfriend took a taxpayer-funded trip to Dubai and Vietnam in December 2008, according to Congressional disclosure reports.

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Senator Max Baucus’s chief health adviser, Elizabeth Fowler, has been called the “chief operating officer” of the healthcare reform process by Politico — the staffer who sets legislative deadlines, coordinates with the White House on policy, and is understood to speak for Baucus on health policy issues. Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein has called her the most influential health staffer in the Senate.

Fowler, as it turns out, is also fresh off a lucrative stint working for the insurance industry: from 2006 to 2008, she was VP of public policy for Wellpoint, the insurance giant.

That’s right, an insurance industry hack is the quiet name directing the healthcare reform process on Capitol Hill.

It gets worse. Baucus’s chief health advisor prior to Fowler, Michelle Easton, currently lobbies for Wellpoint as a principal at Tarplin, Downs, & Young.

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