I just think she’s got an inability to you-know-what in the pot.

Take a look at her list of “Women For Crosbie” folks:

Chair: Elaine Chao

Honorary Chair: Kelley Paul

Honorable Cathy Bailey,Honorable Kelly Knight, Honorable Ellen Williams, Former First Lady Glenna Fletcher, Honorable Robyn Williams, Senate Pro Tem Katie Stine, Senator Julie Denton, Senator Alice Forgy Kerr, Representative Julie Raque Adams, Representative Alecia Webb-Edgington, Representative Sarah Beth Gregory, Representative Kim King, Representative Donna Mayfield, Representative Addia Wuchner, Representative Jill York, Barren County Judge Executive Davie Greer, Susan Baker, Nelda Barton-Collings, Carol Barr, Jennifer Bates, Cathy Bell, Mikki Harris Bland, Mary Lou Blount, Wilma Brandes, DeAnna Brangers, Linda Brown, Caroline Cash, Joanie Cox, Renee Craddock, Sherri Craig, Brenda Craig, Regina Crawford, Donna Davidson, Jennifer Decker, Brittany Dowell, Barb Ellerbrook, Bobbie Floyd, Nancy Grayson, Beverly Griffith, Adrienne Grizzell, Meredith Haney, Heather Harris, Rose Harris, Paula Harshaw, Julie Hinson, Judi Hughes, Valerie Kane, Angela Leet, Hilda Legg, Alicia Lewis, Christy Lewis, Gale Lively, Cynthia Matthews, Shellie May, Cindy McCarthy, Sandra McLaughlin, Ann Melton, Robin Mercer, Faith Mercke, Laura Miller, Libby Milligan, Nan Milliman, Betty Moberly, Cara Morris, Karen Mundy, Monteia Mundy, Bonnie Ogle, Lori Osborne, Laura Owens, Shannon P’Pool, April Preece, Tula Prewitt, Shannon Rickett, Carol Rogers, Cathy Rupp, Gail Russell, Afsi Siahkoohi, Mary Singleton, Maria Smith, Kathy Stocks, Judith Taylor, Susan Tucker, Holly Harris VonLuehrte, Kristin Webb, Kim Wells, Amy Wickliffe, Martie Wiles, Nelle Williams, Tami Wilson

Note the serious lack of, you know, Democrats? That’s hardly showing leadership in a general election. It’s showing extreme partisanship – teabagger partisanship, no less. And it’s why her political career will be ruined if she loses to Todd Hollenbach.

Maybe it’s me, but I think it’s hilarious watching Trey Grayson pretend to support Rand Paul. [Ronnie Ellis]

Looks like Gatewood is gonna represent Mike Lewis in court next week. [Marion County Line]

A couple was shot to death at a Pike County grocery story. Sad news for Eastern Kentucky. [H-L]

This may be America’s education moment. But will Kentucky realize it? Louisville? Will we just ignore it and try to sugar coat everything? [HuffPo]

Alice Forgy Kerr is losing to Don Blevins. That’s what this CN|2 poll says. [Ryan Alessi]

Does my stance on gay marriage hurt your precious christian ears or whatever? Eff your feelings. Really. [Dan Savage]

Former Labor Secretary and lady wife of Mitch McConnell, Elaine Chao, is gonna speak at some luncheon held by Louisville Republicans on October 11 at noon. Crowne Plaza. $100. [Email Blast]

Not all the teabagger/Paulbots hate the gays. See for yourself. [Click the Clicky]

You know, some people shouldn’t let their children out of the cage in the basement. And if they do, they need to use those kiddie leashes. [B&P]

Ray Dowd, an assistant dean in the University of Kentucky College of Social Work, was charged with criminal trespassing. [H-L]

If you’re not following the Louisville mayoral race, you should be. There’s a Republican pulling progressive support (but he’s borderline afraid of the gays), an independent who rides bikes and talks about how bad the other candidates are and a Democrat named Greg Fischer who is repeating his 2008 U.S. Senate primary campaign on a local level. Like this “transparency” schtick, it’s all a hot mess. [The 'Ville Voice]

A carpetbagger counterpoint on health care? Yes, please. [MCL]

Alert! Jennifer Moore said “Democratic Party” instead of “Democrat Party.” [Beth Musgrave]

Todd Hollenbach is lying about being unaware of the office politics leading to the firing of Mary John Celletti. I know he is. Both he and Mo McDaniel are behind it 100%. MJC may not talk about it or answer questions, but my sources in that office are deep. Big mistake for Todd “I Love Frank Simon Because My Father-In-Law Is His Best Friend” Hollenbach. [Ryan Alessi]

Earth to Rand Paul: calling Jack Conway a career politician won’t prevent Kentuckians from realizing you’re a hypocrite when it comes to Medicare. And it most certainly won’t stop people from paying attention to your crazy ways. [Joe Arnold]

The Kentucky Society of Washington gave Elaine Chao the Henry Clay Distinguished Kentuckian Award at its biennial dinner on the 15th. The event took place at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel. A funny: Helen Thomas won the award in 2000.  Maybe Chao won because of the awesome work she did to set all kinds of labor disasters in place? [Press Release]

I keep hearing that Daniel Logsdon is a super-nice guy. But also hear serious doubt from nearly every Democrat I talk to. This should get interesting. [Joe Gerth]

Suicide among gay teens? Who cares, right? String them up and kick them out of our country. Don’t these people know there’s a black man in the White House? AMERICA!!1!  The gays are just insignificant.  Don’t let them in our military! [H-L]

Mitch McConnell allegedly honored slaves who built the U.S. Capitol. Something about that is unbelievably awkward. [WBKO]

Fayette County was added to Kentucky’s disaster declaration because Failure/Mayor Jim Newberry is such a disaster. [H-L]

Yeah, about that.

Check it.

• $25 million money market account? Check.
• $5 million home with rental property? Check.
• $50,000 in interest? Check.
• $193,400 salary? Check.

That’s why Republicans refer to Mitch as “Daddy.” Because he’s loaded with sugar from hims Chinese government shipping magnate family.

Is this really what the citizens of Prospect want police to waste their tax dollars on? A case against an old couple who put up a small fence around their garden to keep the deer out? Fining them for using tomato cages and bird netting? And taking out a lien on their home? Really? What a damn embarrassment the once-great suburb of Louisville has become. [C-J]

Heard on the radio this morning: “She talks straight and isn’t afraid to handle the tough issues.” & “Joni’s one of the stars.” [Francene on Rep. Joni Jenkins]

Again, this makes it really tough for us to believe Trey Grayson isn’t going to be the next Republican candidate for U.S. Senate when Jim Bunning drops out of the race. [Corbin Times Tribune]

What Pam says. It’s time to tell Howard Dean, Tammy Baldin and others to do the right thing. [Pam's House Blend]

Jim Bunning is publicly attacking David Williams. Called him a big fish in a small pond. [WLKY]

Read the rest after the jump…

Dear Herald-Leader: Steven Adkins wasn’t a Mt. Sterling man. He was a Morgan County/West Liberty man. You need to run a correction and do a better job of relaying accident information like this. Why screw around when you don’t have the complete story? Full disclosure: Steven is our cousin. [H-L]

The citizens of Lynch, Kentucky need your help. Only you can help them protect their water supply against improper coal mining practices. [Barefoot & Progressive]

Um, sorry, but 50 people at a Republican fundraiser in Corbin is a lot. [Whomever Runs Brett Hall's Website]

Funny how it’s legal to fire the gays in most of Kentucky but it’s illegal to fire someone who smokes. [CJ]

Have you been following this Karen Sypher mess? Or the Javanon scandal that threatens to take down everyone and their mother? [The 'Ville Voice: Spyher & Javanon]

Something really has happened in Iran. [HuffPo]

The mainstream media is still silent on the huuuuge “gift” Mitch McConnell and Elaine Chao hid during the 2008 U.S. Senate campaign. [Page One]

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his wife, former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, received a personal gift from a family member worth between $5 million and $25 million, according to his annual financial disclosure report, which was released on Friday morning.

The gift came from Chao’s father, Dr. James S.C. Chao, a wealthy Chinese-born businessman, and it boosted McConnell’s personal worth from a minimum of $3 million in 2007 to more than $7 million.

“That was a gift from Secretary Chao’s father in April 2008 to the Senator and the Secretary, in memory of her mother, who passed away in August 2007,” said Don Stewart, McConnell’s spokesman. Ruth Mulan Chu was a historian.

Isn’t that cute? A “gift” worth up to $25 MILLION. A gift. Like it’s no big deal. From her shipping magnate father who is partners with the Chinese dictatorship.

How is it this is being ignored by the mainstream media?

To think you wonder why we think Mitch McConnell is the master of not just obstruction but corruption.

Bet Mitch is glad he didn’t put this on his personal financial disclosure until after the 2008 U.S. Senate election. Since he probably used that up to $25 million as collateral for his fancy $2 million loan his campaign got just ten days before the election, we guess you could say Mitch McConnell’s campaign victory really was financed by… get this… his RED CHINESE shipping magnate father-in-law and his dictator business partner.

Unemployment insurance ordeal part II. [Stephenie Steitzer]

U.S. Senate paranoia? Not likely, but it’s an interesting theory. Thank goodness those guys in Frankfort aren’t intelligent enough to dream something like this up. [Blue In The Bluegrass]

The budget crisis – which hasn’t been solved, as Beshear and Stumbo want us to believe – certainly does make gambling sound more attractive. [C-J]

Thanks, Frankfort, for putting public safety at risk! This clearly was the best session ever. [WLKY]

Why did Steve Beshear hide his endorsement of Daniel Mongiardo? Is he behind him 100% or isn’t it? [Club for Growth]

Over the weekend the Courier-Journal editorial board noted what a nightmare Elaine Chao was for workers in the United States: A particularly grotesque example was the reaction of the Labor bureaucrat to a call in which an undercover agent claimed to have seen children working in a California meatpacking plant. Nobody checked it out. The fictitious but presumably frightening claim never even made it into the agency’s database. [C-J]

Anyone see Mitch McConnell yesterday on CNN’s State of the Union program? [CNN on TeeVee]

Governor Steve Beshear’s approval rating still hasn’t broken the magical 50% mark. He’s still sitting at 49% approval with a 41% disapproval. And has Hebert says, he’s got big problems in eastern Kentucky where his numbers are 20 points lower than in Louisville. Can’t be good for Mongiardo. No wonder he buried the endorsement. [Mark Hebert]

Jefferson County Republican Party is bringing in U.S. Rep. Mike Pence to keynote its Lincoln Dinner on April 3rd. Wonder how many people even know who he is?  Come on, Brad Cummings, can’t you bring someone good like Fred Phelps, Rush Limbaugh or that meth lab grandmother of Bristol Palin’s love child? [Louisville GOP]

Interesting note from the Kentucky Young Democrats convention on Saturday: Jack Conway mentioned having already filed suit against the Beshear Administration. It’s definitely on since he mentioned that. [Various Reports]

More on Conway’s speech Saturday night. [Barefoot & Progressive]

And what’d Daniel Mongiardo do when he stopped by the Young Democrats Convention on Friday? He hijacked it– even Valerie Biden Owens snubbed her nose at him. Here’s the best line we’ve heard all weekend: “For a doctor who claims to love the outdoors, Mongiardo sure does a good job at not giving a damn about the very land, and people, closest to him.” [C-J]

Go read this great story about the reuniting of a family from war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo. [H-L]

The federal agency charged with enforcing minimum wage, overtime and many other labor laws is failing in that role, leaving millions of workers vulnerable, Congressional auditors have found.

In a report scheduled to be released Wednesday, the Government Accountability Office found that the agency, the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division, had mishandled 9 of the 10 cases brought by a team of undercover agents posing as aggrieved workers.

In one case, the division failed to investigate a complaint that under-age children in Modesto, Calif., were working during school hours at a meatpacking plant with dangerous machinery, the G.A.O., the nonpartisan auditing arm of Congress, found.

-SNIP-

The accountability office also investigated hundreds of cases that it said the Wage and Hour Division had mishandled. In one, the division waited 22 months to investigate a complaint from a group of restaurant workers. Ultimately, investigators found that the workers were owed $230,000 because managers had made them work off the clock and had misappropriated tips. When the restaurant agreed to pay back wages but not the tips, investigators simply closed the case.

In another case, the accountability office found that workers at a boarding school in Montana were not paid more than $200,000 in overtime. But when the employer offered to pay only $1,000 in back wages as the two-year statute of limitations approached, the division dropped the case.

“We have a crisis in wage theft, and the Department of Labor has not been aggressive enough in recent years,” said Kim Bobo, executive director of Interfaith Worker Justice, a group that advocates for low-wage workers. “The new secretary of labor says she’s the new sheriff in town, but I’m concerned she’s facing the wild, wild West of wage theft.”

-SNIP-

Elaine L. Chao, often defended the Wage and Hour Division, saying it had concentrated on larger, tougher cases, and secured back wages for more than 300,000 workers a year and collected more than twice as much annually as the division had done in the final years of the Clinton administration.

The report concluded that the Wage and Hour Division had mishandled more serious cases 19 percent of the time. In such cases, the accountability office said, the division did not begin an investigation for six months, did not complete an investigation for a year, did not assess back wages when violations were clearly identified and did not refer cases to litigation when warranted.

Click here to read the rest.

Yay America and Elaine Chao for being awesome.

Big time ruh ro for Bristol Bar and Grille in Louisville. First discrimination against a differently abled young man. Now this. [Mark Hebert]

The Mine Safety and Health Administration warned five Kentucky coal mines that they could be subject to tougher enforcement because they show potential patterns of repeated serious safety violations. Meanwhile, Frankfort continues to legislate against mine safety. Go figure. [C-J]

Mitch McConnell and Elaine Chao now fly Southwest. Guess Elaine has gotten more comfortable with flying into BWI, rather than National, now that the government isn’t paying for her direct flights from Louisville. [Politico]

Did guards at the Fayette County jail beat an inmate who died? A lawsuit says the man had six broken ribs. And the Lexington Jail Fiasco goes on. This is maybe the only thing David Adams has been right about lately and it deserves all the attention in the world. [H-L]

An increase in state and federal taxes is scaring cigarette smokers and prices are jumping. Is this good for public health or just bad for people who smoke cancer sticks? [C-J]

And even more from the Courier:  a special investigation. Officer Absent: Case Dismissed. [C-J]

Daniel Mongiardo– three months later– finally has a website. He’s recorded a video about why he’s running for the U.S. Senate. The video, which is 95% about health care (we get that he’s a doctor, but why would it make him a good senator?), has a mention of coal toward the end. So, I suppose we’re left to assume he supports health care and coal. Anyone else care to take a moment to analyze the video?

Robert King is right. We’ve gotta freeze tuition immediately and keep it constant for the entire four years students are in college. Even Senate President David Williams is on board. Lee Todd needs to step back and stop trying to justify outrageous tuition increases. Our state’s universities are now priced out of affordability for most Kentuckians. We’re in a state of educational emergency. [H-L]

New details about ANOTHER torrid gay sexcapade of disgraced evangelical pastor Ted Haggard. Oh, how the self-hating keeps getting crazier and crazier. He sure had a penchant for youngins, though. That’s for sure. [AP]

Can you find anyone you know in this super-high-resolution image taken during Barack Obama’s inauguration? [Giant Inaugural Photo]

Museum Plaza? Yeah, it’s never going to be built. Now contractors are filing liens against the developers of the project. [C-J]

Greg Stumbo’s once best friend in the press, Lurry Dayul, is still hating on him over gambling. The very thing he was loving him for just weeks ago. We hear through the gayvine Stumbo told a group of legislators that he did his part by introducing the bill but now it’s up to them to get the votes. Who is “them”? Would it be Larry Clark and crew or the Governor’s office? Or both? [H-L]

Why is Jack Conway the only potential U.S. Senate candidate the only one talking about education? Saving education is one of the keys to saving Kentucky’s economy. If you’re educated, you’ll make more money and lure in higher paying jobs. [The Hill]

The circus is definitely back in town. And meandering through pre-filed legislation definitely provides more than a few WTF moments. [Ralph Long]

Elaine Chao is back at the Heritage Foundation as a distinguished fellow. Chao, heiress to the Chinese shipping throne, caused all kinds of fancy problems for America for eight years. Now she’s in a spot where she can’t endanger miners or use capitol police as she’s getting her nails done. Everyone needs to re-read John Cheves’ excellent series from October 2006. [Jim Carroll]

Thanks to DavidNYC at Swing State Project for the link love on the Mongiardo Senate story. [SwingStateProject]

And if you were sleeping last night: Daniel Mongiardo will announce his bid for the U.S. Senate today. [Page One]