It's official. Dan Coats is in the race against Evan Bayh:
"I'm going to put my heart and soul into this, because I don't think Hoosiers are supporting what's going on in Washington," Coats told the Indiana radio station WOWO. "I think they need an alternative and that's why I'm here."
Democrats are taking him so seriously that they're throwing everything they can at him.
By Monday, less than a week after he floated the idea of a comeback bid for the seat he held for one full term in the 1990s, Democrats had framed the former senator as a carpetbagger, a Washington lobbyist for PhRMA and big banks and a foreign agent with ties to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Yemeni interests — with almost no noticeable pushback until Coats brought on a campaign spokesman at the beginning of this week.
Guess they've got their pushback now. But it's the reaction from the right might be the real problem:
Democrats have been quick to attack Coats as a lobbyist who has done the bidding of the fattest fat cats. But, ironically, the policies Coats advanced on behalf of his corporate clients are the same bailouts, regulations, and overspending that President Obama has championed in the name of "change."
[. . .]
Populist anger is burning over bailouts, overspending, government growth, and the closed-door Washington collusion between the wealthy and the powerful. This anger has Democrats worried. But if Republicans nominate Coats, a Beltway insider specializing in corporate welfare, the Tea Party might be tarring and feathering the GOP as well.
Well, that's what primaries are for, isn't it? I wouldn't automatically assume Coats to be the winner. John Hostettler, for one thing, has been showing up at events organized by the tea party movement, and that seems to be where most of the energy in the GOP is showing up these days.
