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Dan Coats’ Disturbing Connection to Terrorist Hotbed Yemen

Posted by admin on 08/30 at 02:23 PM

Skeletons just keep emerging from Dan Coats’ murky past as a D.C. lobbyist.

After seeing the outrageous hypocrisy of Dan Coats’ first TV ad, you wouldn’t think it could get much worse. But now we learn that while one of his firms was working to release six suspected Yemeni terrorists from Guantanamo, the other was directly lobbying our government on behalf of the terrorist haven. Coats has told Hoosiers on numerous occasions that he will ‘make no excuses’ for his firm’s clients, but with a nation like Yemen as a client, it seems that Dan Coats’ moral compass needs some alignment.


Below is a webvideo detailing a pattern of disturbing connections between Dan Coats and Yemen – a nation which Central Intelligence Agency analysts have identified as “the most urgent threat to U.S. national security.”


Dan Coats’ original lobbying firm—Verner, Liipfert, Bernhart, McPherson and Hand—took Yemen on as a client a year after Coats’ arrival and continued to lobby for Yemeni interests throughout the rest of his tenure. Throughout the firm’s time representing the Middle Eastern nation, Yemen has become the source of an increasing number of reports of state-sanctioned repression and violence, along with numerous accounts of Al Qaeda activity. In spite of these unsettling developments, Coats never once raised an objection to Verner Liipfert’s continued representation of the country.

 

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News

Social Security plan ‘sensible’ to Coats

Courier Press, 08/09/10

Ellsworth says idea will privatize system
Ideas offered by a congressman from Wisconsin are at the center of a debate in Indiana’s U.S. Senate race over the future of Social Security.

The Republican candidate, Dan Coats, likes the proposal by Republican Rep. Paul Ryan to “sunset” the system in which the current work force pays for retirees’ benefits and replace it with individual, government-guaranteed accounts.

“It’s one of the most interesting proposals out there,” Coats said.

The Democratic candidate, Brad Ellsworth, calls that privatization and says it’s an idea he will not support. He says extending Social Security’s solvency is a priority, but one that should be achieved other ways.

The rift demonstrates competing themes in the candidates’ messages: Coats is highlighting his desire to let the air out of an overexpanded government, while Ellsworth underscores the need to protect against the forces that pushed the United States off the economic ledge. 

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Coats Tries To Go Back Through D.C. Revolving Door

Associated Press, 08/09/10

Coats Tries To Take Road Less Traveled _ Backward Through Washington’s Revolving Door
...
Coats’ career after leaving the Senate in 1999 has become a key issue in his bid to replace Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh, who announced his retirement earlier this year. His ability to shed the image of a Washington dealmaker could help determine how far the Republican Party goes toward closing its 59-41 seat deficit in the Senate.

“If you have spent a lot of your professional career lobbying the government and getting paid by a company or a special interest group, you’ve got to be able to explain to voters if you are going to be colored by that experience,” said Dave Levinthal, spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based research group that tracks money in politics.

Coats’ Democratic opponent, Rep. Brad Ellsworth, has hammered away at Coats’ lobbying in an effort to tap into the dark mood among voters about the way Washington works. The issue is giving Indiana voters something else to think about in a campaign year otherwise dominated by the recession, the deficit and health care.

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