We have lots of Elaine news from the last week, so kick back and check out what we have on our shady, shifty, shoddy Secretary of Labor.

Shady Appointees: Elaine lets appointee hide behind diplomatic immunity. Last month, Elaine met with the NAFTA council—the body that could waive diplomatic immunity for lobbyist and former official Mark Knouse. Knouse is the one whose numerous questionable expenses—nearly $10,000 in travel expenditures and about $1 million in shady contracts and vendor payments—forced him to resign. So did Elaine bring this to the NAFTA council? You guess.

Shoddy work: House votes to force Elaine to act. In April, we reported on a House hearing held because Elaine’s OSHA has failed to create comprehensive combustible dust regulations. Last week the House of Representatives got fed up, and voted to require OSHA to write safety standards for combustible dust in workplaces.

Federal regulators would have to come up with new ways to prevent combustible dust explosions in factories under legislation passed by the House… The bill now goes to the Senate, but the White House already has said President Bush would veto it. Despite worker deaths, Congressional votes, Elaine and her buddy President Bush still don’t seem to think combustible dust is a problem.

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Are you ready for another one of Elaine’s shady appointees? Meet Mark Knouse, husband of Elaine’s executive assistant, Pennsylvania lobbyist and former head of the NAFTA-related Commission for Labor Cooperation (CLC). The tri-national CLC is supposed to research and uphold labor law and labor standards in North America.

But according to a recent report from the Labor Department’s Inspector General, Knouse improperly used CLC funds…to the tune of nearly $10,000 in travel expenditures and about $1 million in shady contracts and vendor payments.

While he was head of the CLC, Knouse maintained a private lobbying business, despite CLC rules to the contrary. In 2006, it surfaced that Knouse used taxpayer money from three countries to fund his own private lobbying efforts. Knouse was asked to resign, but because the CLC is an international body, Knouse has diplomatic immunity for his actions while in office.

Guess who has authority to waive immunity? That’s right: Elaine and her CLC buddies. Despite the Inspector General’s request that immunity be waived, Elaine and CLC has done nothing.

Last week, Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) sent a letter to Elaine, asking her to waive immunity. If she doesn’t, Mark Knouse will be another one of many unqualified cronies Elaine has allowed to wreak havoc on America’s workers with taxpayer dollars.