2010-02-10
Don't Rule Out Dan Coats
Let's pretend for a moment that the NRSC wasn't led by a corrupt Senator with too much time on his hands that he has to mess around in other states' primaries.
Okay, are you pretending? So Dan Coats announced he was going to run for US Senate here in Indiana. Before he even returns home to Indiana, the National Democratic Senatorial Committee launches a series of negative attacks bashing Coats relentlessly for clients he represented, where he's been registered to vote (Virginia), and where he said he wants to retire (North Carolina).
Now, undoubtedly, Coats is going to have to answer these attacks in the very near future, but why have the Democrats been so quick to go on such a ferocious campaign against the guy? Well, there are two possible explanations and the truth can be either.
1. Democrats are afraid of Dan Coats.
2. Democrats see Dan Coats as an easy target of opportunity.
If these explanations seem familiar, it's because we've used them before when talking about Sarah Palin. In Palin's case, I honestly believe that she's too incompetent to pose a serious threat to President Obama in 2012. Democrats are just taking shots at an easy target of opportunity who really is her own worst enemy to hurt the wider Republican Party.
Dan Coats and Sarah Palin are in different boats, however. First of all, Dan Coats is probably intelligent enough to be able to tell Katie Couric what he reads. Secondly, and more importantly, Dan Coats isn't the only challenger of Evan Bayh in Indiana. Richard Behney, who has no experience to speak of, is among the Republican contenders in this primary and if Democrats were looking to embarrass Indiana Republicans, they would have been lambasting this guy months ago. Likewise, they've mostly stayed out of the hair of Marlin Stutzman, John Hostettler, and Don Bates, as well.
Of these four, I personally think Stutzman and Hostettler are the best candidates to give Republicans a chance at ousting Evan Bayh. So if this was an instance of Democrats being afraid of Coats, why in the world haven't they attacking Stutzman and Hostettler with the same vigor? The answer to that is simple: money. Dan Coats has been a lobbyist for quite some time and has acquired some very powerful and very rich friends. Although Stutzman and Hostettler are amazing candidates, they haven't been able to raise the funds necessary to get their message out to the voters. This is why I was upset last year when the corrupt politicians in the NRSC said they wouldn't send any money or support to Indiana's Republican candidate for US Senate in 2010. Granted, Coats has NRSC support, but we're pretending that hasn't happened because I want us to look at Coats objectively.
The other thing to remember is that money alone doesn't make the candidate, unless you're giving that money to the NRSC... in which case money is all that matters. Yes, Dan Coats has money in his corner, but the other thing Democrats have to be afraid of is his message. If Dan Coats were a liberal Republican and campaigning on a liberal record, the Republican primary voters here in Indiana will reject him regardless of how much money he spends. Dan Coats may be a lobbyist and arguably a carpetbagger with loyalties to states other than Indiana... but he's probably a conservative lobbyist and carpetbagger; and it certainly seems as if Evan Bayh and the Democratic Party at the State and National level are afraid of this guy and that means he could be very good for us.
Look, I'm not endorsing anybody in this race yet. I do have my favorite, but I'm holding off on endorsing him until I hear what Dan Coats can bring to the table. I'm also not saying we should give Dan Coats a free pass. I have serious problems with him as our candidate and the Democratic Party has done a very good job of summarizing them. But he's still a candidate and until we see where he stands on the issues, I think we'd be doing a disservice to the State of Indiana not to consider the guy at all.
With that said, Dan Coats needs to hit the ground running when he gets back to Indiana tomorrow. Indiana Republicans (including myself) are a lot more skeptical of Coats than are the people he's been playing paddy-cake with inside the I-495 Beltway in Washington, D.C. since he left Indiana more than a decade ago.
