As Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell has plenty of clout in his own right, but he benefits from the multiplier effect of representing half of a “power couple.” He and his wife, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, may not be as venerable as Bob and Elizabeth Dole, as hip as James Carville and Mary Matalin or as jet-setting as Joe and Valerie Wilson, but no other pair connects one end of Pennsylvania Avenue with the other.
“We’re not famous,” Chao responded modestly when asked by The Examiner what life is like as a power couple. “We’re just regular folks.”
She also declined to guess how often they get the town’s most coveted invitation – to the White House. “It’s always very special,” she said.
The couple try to get home every weekend to Kentucky, where Chao says she’s become an avid fan of University of Louisville football. McConnell is a self-described “football nut.”
He said he likes the “chess game” aspect of football but is also drawn to the “vicarious violence” of the game. “They do it to themselves,” he said. “I don’t have to get hit myself but I can watch these guys. It’s sort of warfare without death.”
During the week, Chao and McConnell live in a row house on Capitol Hill. In this city of pol-spotting, the couple is often spied strolling from their home to La Loma, a nearby Tex-Mex restaurant.
Other than their high-profile jobs, Chao says, they lead regular lives.
“When we are at home and off the clock, we talk about what other couples talk about,” she said. “Who will take out the trash and who will fix the sink drain.”
Who does take out the trash?
“Mitch does the inside things and I do the outside things,” she said. “I take out the garbage. I do the garden.”
Is the Senate Republican leader handy around the house?
“Let me put it this way,” Chao said diplomatically. “He’s lucky to have a wife who is good at fixing things inside the house.”
