Hillary Helped UBS—and Then the Bank Funneled Millions to the Clintons

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71. Mitch and his Wife Elaine Chao are the Power Couple in DC! Creepy...

Girding for a Fight, McConnell Enlists His Wife

By JASON HOROWITZMAY 13, 2014

WASHINGTON — At Harvard Business School, Elaine L. Chao kept card files on her classmates, then later kept tabs on their careers. As labor secretary, she had gold-colored coins minted with her name in bas-relief and employed a “Veep”-like staff member who carried around her bag.

And, as the steadfast spouse of Senator Mitch McConnell, she can recite the names of people who have donated to her husband — and how much they gave, friends say.

Those who have encountered Ms. Chao describe her as an unapologetically ambitious operator with an expansive network, a short fuse, and a seemingly inexhaustible drive to get to the top and stay there. Those characteristics helped lift Ms. Chao from her childhood as a Chinese immigrant who could not speak English to the heights of the George W. Bush administration, and they are coming in handy again now that her husband, the highest-ranking Republican in the Senate, confronts a re-election fight that could render him the Senate majority leader or a retiree.

Ms. Chao, who played an early role in her husband’s effort to neutralize a primary challenger he seems likely to dispatch next week, will be more crucial than ever as he turns to face a well-funded female candidate for the first time in his Senate career.

The McConnell campaign said that Ms. Chao, 61, would be a key surrogate in ads and at speaking events, especially if his Democratic opponent, Alison Lundergan Grimes, “runs a campaign that tries to paint a picture of Mitch McConnell as having some kind of a blind spot for women’s issues,” said Josh Holmes, Mr. McConnell’s former chief of staff and a senior adviser. “Obviously we have a pretty strong firsthand testimonial from somebody who can speak to how untrue that is.”

After starring in her husband’s first campaign commercial, Ms. Chao appeared in a campaign web video, shaking an encouraging fist for him.

“She is someone who I say is really great for Senator McConnell and needs to be out there really all the time,” said Rand Paul, the junior senator from Kentucky and a possible presidential aspirant who has forged a working, if wary, relationship with Mr. McConnell. “Because I think we need more strong women who have been successful in their careers out there.”

But while Ms. Chao’s inspiring immigrant story and high-flying résumé are clearly assets, she also reinforces Mr. McConnell’s image as the ultimate Washington establishment figure. Ms. Chao hobnobs with conservative moguls (“She’s on my board!” said Rupert Murdoch) and Obama administration movers, and she has spheres of influence stretching up the East Coast.

In New York, her father is a shipping magnate and several of her five younger sisters married Wall Street titans, including Bruce Wasserstein, the late owner of New York Magazine. In Cambridge last month, she broke ground at the Harvard Business School on a building endowed with $40 million of her family’s fortune.

She is known for being devoted to her family, and engendering great loyalty from some staff members. But she is at least equally renowned for her strong sense of self. In 2004, she likened herself and her husband to Bob and Elizabeth Dole, then the reigning Republican power couple, when she talked to The Paducah Sun about the prospect of her serving as a cabinet secretary while her husband ascended to Senate majority leader.

The power couple’s story is told on the walls of the McConnell-Chao Archives, located at the University of Louisville. On one side are McConnell family artifacts illustrating how the future senator overcame polio to play baseball and lead his high school class. There is no mention of his first wife, Sherrill Redmon, who went on to become a feminist scholar and collaborate with Gloria Steinem at Smith College.

Much More at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/14/us/politics/girding-for-a-fight-mcconnell-enlists-his-wife.html?_r=0