Absolutely brutal - and spot on - email from the state party:
On behalf of Hoosiers everywhere, we'd like to welcome back Dan Coats to the State of Indiana.After more than a decade working, living, and voting in Washington, D.C., it seems that Mr. Coats has decided to come back for a visit. The announcement that he is considering a run for the U.S. Senate has come as a surprise for those of us who haven't seen or heard from the Republican in a good many years.
No worries. Our welcome basket will soon be in the mail.
As soon as Mr. Coats lands, however, maybe he can find some spare time to talk to real Hoosiers about the issues that have been affecting this state while he was away. A lot has changed since Coats abandoned the Hoosier State for the posh life of a Washington insider.
While he's at it, perhaps Dan Coats can tell us about what he has been up to since he left town. He seems to have done well -- being a registered lobbyist for major financial institutions is a great job inside the Beltway from what we hear.
And with those banks receiving billions in TARP bailout money under his watch, it's hard to imagine Mr. Coats hasn't been reaping the benefits of that taxpayer money.
Between all of that lobbying, heading up the failed Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers, and championing Sarah Palin during the 2008 campaign, it's no wonder that Dan Coats was too busy to stop in and spend time in our state over the last decade.
Regardless, we wanted to extend our welcome -- if Mr. Coats would just let us know whether he wants the welcome basket to go to his Virginia address or his extended stay suite here in Indiana, that would be a great help.
If Coats is the hero the RNC is looking for, they must be really terrified of a Bayh vs. Hostettler race. And I'm not sure how Coats fits into the RNC's strategy against Bayh (as laid out by Greg Sargent):
NRSC spokesman Brian Walsh tells me the GOP response will be this: Target Bayh's wife, and the "Bayh family partnership."GOP operatives point out that Evan and Susan Bayh have been criticized over her service on the boards of major insurers such as WellPoint, which reportedly earned her millions.
It's also interesting to note, as Chuck Todd did, that Coats' language on this has been very conditional: "allowing supporters to put his name on the ballot" and "as I test the waters for a potential challenge." Typical political posturing, or is there actually some hesitancy there?
Since House Democrats remain fairly seized with terror at the political ramifications of passing health care reform, it's worth stepping back and thinking clearly about the Democrats' predicament. The November elections look bad for three basic reasons. First, the Republican base is extremely energized, for reasons that were probably inevitable due to Democrats running all three branches of...
