Politico reports that Democrats have done a pretty good job of framing the potential U.S. Senate bid of Senator-turned-lobbyist Dan Coats:
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.
The ferocious barrage — a coordinated effort unleashed by a small core of senior Democratic strategists in Washington, top Bayh political hands and Indiana Democratic Party officials — has partisans on both sides of the aisle wondering not whether Coats has been bruised by the punches but whether he will be able to pick himself up off the canvas.
“We just hit him with a freight train,” one Democratic official familiar with the anti-Coats effort said Monday. “It’s Politics 101: Frame the guy early.”
Indiana Republican Party Chairman Murray Clark said it was “too early to tell” whether the Democratic attacks had inflicted lasting damage on Coats’s campaign.
Democrats really have done a good job pounding Coats. The only unfortunate thing is that Evan Bayh doesn't seem all that interested in returning the favor. Time and time again, he undercuts Democrats -- not just in Indiana, but also on the national stage. And let's not forget: Evan Bayh is not only the same guy who led the charge to get Joe Lieberman his chairmanship, but he also led the charge to give Democratic support to Bush's war policy. So while it's good to see Democrats 'nuke' a Republican candidate, it'd be even nicer to see a Democratic candidate fight for his fellow Democrats, not against them.