Defending Her Honor

Mitch McConnell defends his wife:

"Elaine Chao is just as much an American as any of the rest of them," McConnell said. "In fact, she had to go through a lot more to become an American."

McConnell's aides had already criticized the tweets.

"Secretary Chao and her family are shining examples of the American dream: salt-of-the-earth folks who escaped oppression, came here with nothing, joined our great melting pot, worked exceptionally hard to build a thriving business, and then dedicated so much of their lives to giving back," said Jesse Benton, manager of McConnell's re-election campaign. "It is unconscionable that anyone would use blatant race-baiting for political gain."

Progress Kentucky removed the offending comments from Twitter after Louisville public radio station WFPL-FM aired reports about them. And the group issued two apologies over the past week for what they described as "inappropriate tweets sent by our organization."

"Those tweets did not reflect our values, and we are committed to making sure nothing like that happens again," executive director Shawn Reilly said in a statement posted on the group's website. "We also apologize to our many supporters, and all Kentuckians working for change in 2014, for those communications. Comments with references to race, ethnicity or sexual orientation have no place in any debate, and we are deeply embarrassed by such a mistake."

Actually, it could be argued that those are left-wing values...