Is it possible that the Republicans are to blame for the Utah mine disaster? Is there any bad thing they are not responsible for?

In 2003, when safety inspectors ordered the owner of a Utah coal mine where six workers have been trapped for more than a week to shut down one of his Ohio operations because of repeated safety problems, local press reports say he did not hesitate to flex his political muscle to get the inspectors off his back.

West Virginia Public Radio reporter Jeff Young filed a story at the time that said Murray Energy Corp. CEO Bob Murray had a meeting in Morgantown, W. Va. with Tim Thomspon, then a district manager for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Young obtained notes from the meeting which showed Murray threatening to have MSHA employees fired.

"I will have your jobs. They are gone. The clock is ticking," Young quotes Murray as saying at the meeting.

The notes then go on to say Murray dropped the name of a pair of powerful Republicans in order to underscore his own political clout.

"Mitch McConnell calls me one of the five finest men in America, and last time I checked he was sleeping with your boss," Murray told the inspectors, referring to the senior GOP senator from Kentucky. The quote was repeated in an Oct. 2006 Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader article on McConnell's political influence.

McConnell - the Republican leader in the Senate - is married to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, who oversees MSHA. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, McConnell has received $176,800 in campaign donations from mining interests since 2001.

You know I don't like to go out of my way to blame the Republicans for every little thing that goes wrong. I resisted the urge to talk about the lack of money for infrastructure and the Minneapolis bridge collapse. But if this story is accurate then there may be a direct link between the deaths of these men and Republican corruption.

And I just don't like this Bob Murray guy. Something about him has made me uncomfortable from the first moment I saw him on television. He is too helpful and too defensive to be the innocent one here. He has been making those big speeches in front of the cameras and feigning concern while crying big crocodile tears. I call bullshit.

I would bet big money that this guy turns out to be dirty and to have been warned repeatedly that the mine was unsafe.

I look forward to the Congressional investigation.