You’d think she would have a little decency, or at least a little modesty. After all, Elaine Chao is the U.S. Secretary of Labor. But no, claims a new website, ShameonElaine.org.

During her (so far) seven years in the position Chao has brazenly gutted worker safety programs and regulations, let corporate lawbreakers off the hook and littered her department with anti-union appointees. In the meantime she has had her husband, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), to earmark federal funds to build a $14.2 million library at the University of Louisville and name its auditorium after her. She has lined the walls of the Labor Dept. with 58 pictures of herself and had her department mint fake gold coins with her image on them. No bashfulness here.

American Rights at Work, a pro-union advocacy and resource group (www.americanrightsatwork.org), has decided that Chao’s years of misdeeds have too long avoided scrutiny.

“We launched the website to expose Elaine’s deplorable conduct as Secretary of Labor,” Josh Goldstein, press secretary for American Rights at Work, told me. “Going into her last year there’s still a lot of damage she can do. We have to demand some accountability and change of course.”

The website is finding success with its solid research, clever design, savvy viral strategy and pull-no-punches tone.

The site is loaded with documented information on Chao’s escapades, arranged in easy-to-follow categories. Under the section “Screwing Workers,” with its button of a hard-hat worker, eyebrows raised unhappily, one finds links to the details on how Chao has cut mining safety inspections required by law even as mining accident deaths increase, nixed ergonomic rules, advised employers on how to dodge paying overtime wages and more.

Under the “Corporate Giveaways” section, with its photo button of stacks of cash, is information on the anti-union corporadoes Chao has appointed to high positions in the DoL, the increased red-tape financial reporting she has imposed on unions and how she has reduced or ignored health and safety fines on scofflaw companies.

The “Personal Affairs” section details the symbiotic nepotism between the Secretary of Labor and her Senator husband. The “Hall of Shame” section, with its photo button of trophies, links to info on her almost unbelievably shameless self-promotion.

“It’s a lot of complicated information on the surface that we are trying to make easy to understand,” Michael Whitney, American Rights at Work’s new media coordinator said. “The problem we ran into when we were making the site is: What do you choose? There’s so much she’s done wrong.”

Of course, getting people to the website is key. When they launched it Feb. 12 they sent out an activist alert to over 125,000 people on their list. But creating the kind of buzz they wanted needed more.

They reached out to dozens of local, state and national bloggers, even getting featured on the front page of the Daily Kos twice in the first week. They placed blog ads on a number of top blogs, served up over two million ad impressions through blog ads, Google ad words and RSS ads. They also targeted ads to Facebook accounts of people whose profiles said they worked at the DoL and other federal departments or in Congress.

“We’re trying to reach insiders from the outside going through atypical channels and serve them ads, engage them and bring them to our site,” Whitney said.

Similarly, they reached out to health and safety blogs and to people who cover these types of topics who aren’t the regular anti-Bush demographic.

They also are using a basic email letter campaign to engage the public and harass Chao. The letter’s subject line reads: “I’m watching.” It goes on to tell Chao: “I’m outraged to learn about your record of gutting safety regulations, promoting a big business agenda, and undermining workers and their unions… As a person who cares about workers’ rights...I will be paying attention to the policies and practices of the Department of Labor during the remainder of your time in office.”

They are planning to hand-deliver the 20,000 letters collected so far to Chao at the DoL later this month.

“Giving the public a voice puts pressure on some officials and we want them to know they’re unhappy with the leadership of the DoL,” Goldstein said.

And apparently the pressure is being felt. Of the more than 30,000 unique visits to the site, several hundred hits have come from inside the DoL.

“We’ve been told that Elaine Chao has heard about the website and is none too happy about it,” Goldstein said.

You wouldn’t expect her to be gleeful with the way the site methodically dissects her record, calling her out on every act of injustice and hypocrisy, accusing her of turning the DoL into a weapon against workers and their unions and laying workers’ injuries and deaths at her doorstep.

Even the photo of Chao used throughout the site is a not-very-flattering shot of her with her face all scrunched up. Then there’s a picture of her and George W. Bush with the letters “BFF” plastered across it.

“Should we go soft on her?” Goldstein asked rhetorically. “She hasn’t been soft on American workers. It’s time somebody takes her on as hard as we can.”