Awkward. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and former senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) have a long history a feuding. DeMint, who now heads the Heritage Foundation, is the boss of Elaine Chao, who happens to be McConnel's wife.
Chao is a Distinguished Fellow at the conservative think tank, where she works on jobs, employment, trade, workforce, and competitiveness issues. She is currently working hard to support her husband is his Senate re-election bid, but DeMint is encouraging her husband's critics in the election.
Here is how Washington lobbyist and McConnell-Chao friend Richard Hohlt put it: "She's at Heritage as a fellow, and there is Heritage trying to blow him up."
Here is more on the tension and some more background. Those think tank cocktail receptions have to be pretty awkward...