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.

Thousands of our readers voted on Elaine’s “Worst of the Worst” actions during her time running the Department of Labor. With so many messed up priorities, it’s hard to determine which are the most egregious, but the people have spoken and the top three results are as follows:

5,615 votes - Against Workers’ Rights - Elaine actively campaigned against the Employee Free Choice Act, a bipartisan piece of legislation that restores the rights of workers to freely and fairly form unions.

5,435 votes - Safety - Elaine refused to enforce rules requiring employers to pay for safety gear, contributing to 400,000 workers injured and 50 dead.

3,901 votes - Corporate Cronies - Elaine fast-tracked coal mining executives, anti-union lawyers, and shady lobbyists to positions of power in her agency, including one who wrote a report titled “How to Close Down the Department of Labor.”

A random drawing will take place quickly for those who voted…stay tuned as we’ll announce the winner soon!

The U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Labor, Education and Pensions, chaired by Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), recently issued a report calling for the prosecution of Robert Murray, co-owner of the Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah where 9 people died in 2006 and one of Mitch McConnell’s political contributors.

You remember Murray - one of Mitch McConnell’s “five finest men in America.” Murray has a history of bullying MSHA so he can get his way. As the Salt Lake Tribune reported:

Most egregiously, the report alleged, Murray Energy was mining into what little was left of the south barrier pillar after being told directly by an MSHA inspector not to cut that coal. The company also violated its mining plan by taking several feet of coal out of the mine’s floor, elongating the pillars and making them extra vulnerable to failure.

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Last week we reported that Elaine Chao shirked her responsibilities with a series of meetings that failed to address what really matters to America’s workers. After meeting with George W. Bush, Elaine addressed a group of Kentucky businesspeople in Washington, DC. Elaine Chao is married to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the Republican Senate leader who is up for re-election in November; Elaine isn’t from Kentucky, but does reside there with her husband.

We dug a little deeper, and found something curious. Elaine Chao spoke to four Kentucky business groups on four separate occasions in the last five months. Here’s her itinerary:

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Today is Elaine and Mitch’s fifteenth wedding anniversary; who would have thought the spark of love between the two would turn into such an enduring flame of political power in Washington?

Nobody can deny that Elaine and Mitch have much in common. Even Mitch’s spokesman, Scott Sowry, alluded to the match made in heaven the day after their wedding:

You could say that the Senator [Mitch] is a conservative Republican, and she [Elaine] had appointments in both the Reagan and Bush Administrations, so she’s a very good Republican.

With so many people blessed by Elaine and Mitch’s nuptials, it’s almost impossible to keep track!

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