Congress Completely Corrupt - Fails to Ask Any Relevant Questions to Elaine Chao

During the past week, the Senate held confirmation hearings for Cabinet positions in the incoming Trump administration. Most individuals were asked pointed questions about their policies and experience.

As I wrote in my previous post titled, A Quick Rating of President Elect Trump's Cabinet Selections, I rated the selection of Elaine Chao (who happens to be the wife of Senator McConnell) as Transportation Secretary as 'Absolutely horrible' - 'Since Senator McConnell is the Senate Majority Leader and holds a lot of influence in getting these individuals confirmed. There was certainly some kind of deal as this is not a swamp draining move.'

To the surprise of no one who understands the utterly corrupt nature of Congress, Elaine Chao had a relatively easy time being questioned by the Senate.

Elaine Chao Enjoys Lovefest at Confirmation Hearing for Transportation Secretary - US News, January 11, 2017

As job interviews go, Transportation Secretary nominee Elaine Chao has the skids well-greased for her ascension to the post: she's got a great resume, knows almost all the people on the hiring committee, and is related to one of the senior managers – who just happened to introduce her as she appeared before a Senate committee Wednesday.
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While nominees for president-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet faced grueling questioning and open opposition from civil rights groups in testy hearings in other parts of the Capitol complex, Chao cruised as she chatted amiably with lawmakers about transportation issues. Not a single member questioned her qualifications, ethics or ideology – staple topics of more contentious hearings.

Senators talked about her "grace and excellence" as labor secretary under President George W. Bush and as deputy secretary of transportation under President George H.W. Bush. They mentioned how much their wives loved her. One talked about being "excited about working with you going forward." And those were the Democrats talking.

Really...'grace and excellence'???

The article I referenced raises all kinds of ethical concerns, none of which were discussed in the Senate confirmation hearing:
Mitch McConnell’s Freighted Ties to a Shadowy Shipping Company - The Nation, October 30, 2014

The seizure of the narcotics shipment in the Caribbean port occurred far away from Kentucky, the state in which Senator Mitch McConnell is now facing a career-defining election. But the Republican Senate minority leader has the closest of ties to the owner of the Ping May, the vessel containing the illicit materials: the Foremost Maritime Corporation, a firm founded and owned by McConnell’s in-laws, the Chao family.

Though Foremost has played a pivotal role in McConnell’s life, bestowing the senator with most of his personal wealth and generating thousands in donations to his campaign committees, the drug bust went unnoticed in Kentucky, where every bit of McConnell-related news has generated fodder for the campaign trail. That’s because, like many international shipping companies, Chao’s firm is shrouded from public view, concealing its identity and limiting its legal liability through an array of tax shelters and foreign registrations. Registered through a limited liability company in the Marshall Islands, the Ping May flies the Liberian flag.

McConnell’s ties to the Chaos go back to the late 1980s, when James Chao began donating to the senator. In 1993, McConnell married James’s daughter, Elaine Chao, a Republican activist and former Reagan administration official who would later serve as secretary of labor in the George W. Bush cabinet. James Chao emigrated to the United States from Taiwan, and founded the Foremost Maritime Corporation upon settling in New York. The company has grown significantly over the years, from acting as maritime agent during the Vietnam War to controlling a fleet of approximately sixteen dry-bulk cargo ships in operation today.
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McConnell has benefited in many ways from his relationship with his in-laws.

The Republican Senate minority leader’s personal wealth grew seven-fold over the last ten years thanks in large part to a gift given to him and his wife in 2008 from James Chao worth between $5 million and $25 million (Senate ethics forms require personal finance disclosures in ranges of amounts, rather than specific figures). The gift helped the McConnells after their stock portfolio dipped in the wake of the financial crisis that year, and ensured they could pay off more than $100,000 in mortgage debt on their Washington home.

The generous gift made McConnell one of the wealthiest members of the Senate, with a net worth averaging around $22.8 million, according to The Washington Post’s review of his financial disclosures.

Following the gift, McConnell sent a letter of congratulations to an auditorium of Chinese officials in Shanghai who were gathered for an event honoring James Chao’s wife (McConnell’s mother-in-law, Ruth Mulan Chu Chao, who passed away in 2007). The Shanghai Mulan Education Foundation, created in her honor, regularly hosts students from the University of Louisville, where McConnell has a leadership academy bearing his name that sends students on trips to China. 

Just another example of how little members of Congress are accountable to the people.