Posted by
Mike Bates on Saturday, December 05, 2009 12:35:00 PM
On CNN Saturday Morning News today, anchors Betty Nguyen and T.J. Holmes reported on a U.S. senator who nominated his girlfriend to serve as a federal prosecutor earlier this year:
HOLMES: Well, it is something -a player, a name that a
lot of people normally might not know a whole lot about, from a state
that most people don't know a whole lot about. He's been important in
the health care debate.
NGUYEN: That is true.
HOLMES: Senator Max Baucus, out of Montana, he is a key player on a
Senate committee that has been putting together some health care
legislation. News coming out that he actually nominated his current
girlfriend for a U.S. attorney position, while the two were involved.
They are both divorced here. So that is not an issue and not accused of
breaking up each other marriages.
NGUYEN: Yes, there was no affair or anything like that at all.
HOLMES: Nothing like that.
NGUYEN: The question lies in the fact, should he have been able to
screen the applicants, she being one of them, and go ahead and nominate
her for the position?
HOLMES: Of course, she did not. They decided that once the process
moved along and they gotten more involved in their relationship that
she should withdrawal her name. So she didn't get the position. She now
works at the Justice Department. But it is raising, just a few
questions about what you should be able to do, a person in power, as
far as trying to have influence, or nominate someone you are
romantically involved with.
NGUYEN: And should it have gone even that far? Because she was down to like, what, three applicants?
HOLMES: The final three.
NGUYEN: Yes, the final three applicants. Let us know what you think
about that. Go to our Facebook and Twitter sites. As well as our CNN
blog, you can reach out to us several ways. We do want to hear from
you. We will be reading your responses today. Let us know what you
think.
Neither anchor told viewers that Baucus is a Democrat. If he were
a Republican, would that fact have been deemed newsworthy? We all know
the answer to that.