What if Mitch McConnell cared as much about the border as about pork projects?

[Bigun]

What if Mitch McConnell cared as much about the border as about pork projects?

Daniel Horowitz   Â· June 11, 2019

One after another, House Democrat leaders are going down their to-do list of messaging bills to pass out of the chamber in an effort to broadcast and sell their priorities to the American people. There is no subtlety about their values and passion. Yet, the last time I checked, Republicans still control the Senate. Where is their competing agenda on issues like the border invasion? Why have they not voted on a single major legislative reform this term other than handing the Democrats one win after another on budget bills? A new Politico expose might provide us with an answer to these questions.

Politico’s story is on Todd Inman, a special liaison between Mitch McConnell’s office and the Transportation Department helping to secure pet infrastructure projects in Owensboro, Kentucky, Inman’s home city within McConnell’s home state. The secretary of transportation happens to be Elaine Chao, McConnell’s wife. Inman is her chief of staff. Somehow, projects in the Kentucky river town that were previously rejected, according to Politico, wound up being approved, and McConnell kept taking credit for them. The story was based on multiple conversations with local elected officials and emails obtained via FOIA request:

The city submitted its first grant application during the final months of the Obama administration, under a freight and highway improvement program called FASTLANE. But after a technical review by career DOT staff, the city’s application was passed over in favor of other projects.

According to [Daviess County chief executive Al] Mattingly, local officials were undeterred and saw Chao’s appointment as Transportation secretary — and Owensboro local Todd Inman’s new role as director of operations in her office — as a valuable connection moving forward.

Back in Washington, Inman encouraged that perception. In a February 2017 email to McConnell’s chief of staff, he wrote, “The Secretary has indicated if you have a Ky-specific issue that we should flag for her attention to please continue to go through your normal channels but feel free to contact me directly as well so we can monitor or follow up as necessary.”

Owensboro submitted a second grant application in the first year of the Trump administration under the department’s INFRA grant program — the new administration’s successor to FASTLANE — which was likewise unsuccessful. Weeks before that application was due, McConnell’s office emailed members of Chao’s staff with the Owensboro Riverport Authority CEO’s contact information, requesting technical assistance for the riverport’s grant application. Derek Kan, Chao’s undersecretary for policy, forwarded the request to his deputy, who confirmed that they were following up...

https://www.conservativereview.com/news/mitch-mcconnell-cared-much-border-pork-projects/?fbclid=IwAR1aRIqIKzVYbhQwjG9VKXRNzrNTte-QgRMxNCrZy57HDg6cd1fZnGmEByU

[txradioguy]

We’d have a secure border.

[Bigun]

We’d have a secure border.

Without doubt!