Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) was prepped for an appropriations hearing on the defense budget when he took his turn Wednesday afternoon, flipping papers on his lap, reading from them and commending the witness for his department’s prompt response to a letter Coats had sent about a military accounting office in his home state.
It was all fairly innocuous except for one problem: Coats was in the completely wrong hearing complimenting the wrong witness.
After he’d finished a lengthy opening to his question, a staffer slipped Coats a piece of paper. Coats read it to himself, looked up, and said, “I just got a note saying I’m at the wrong hearing.”
“Well, that would explain why I didn’t know anything about this letter,” said David Cohen, undersecretary of treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence.
Probably shouldn't have even brought it up. For one thing, the liberals will have a field day making fun of him, so he does't need someone from his side of the aisle piling on. For another, it seems like the kind of goof I might make. In fact, showing up at the wrong place is in my rotation of anxiety dreams along with the one about suddenly being in a class for finals day after having forgotten to attend the whole semester.
But, hell, funny is funny. Even Coats sees the humor:
Good humored Coats acknowledged his mix-up on Twitter, musing it may be a Russian conspiracy, which is a possibility considering Vladimir Putin singled him out for a sanction last month.
