10/24/2010 - Revolving Door Should Be Closed on Dan Coats - Indy Star

WASHINGTON Dan Coats' former lobbying firm could hardly have a more prestigious address.

The offices of King & Spalding sit on a corner of Pennsylvania Avenue here in the heart of the nation's capital. From the front door, it's a two-minute walk to the White House. From there, it's just another mile and a half to the U.S. Capitol.

I swung by the King & Spalding office building during a recent trip to D.C. to get a look at the place that until recently employed Coats. His old employer has everything you'd expect of a lobbying powerhouse: A great location. A long employee roster of powerful D.C. players. Well-dressed men and women walking in and out the building's front door.

The only surprise was that the front door didn't revolve. That would better symbolize an influential firm whose website boasts of its many employees "who have held high-level positions in federal and state governments."

Until recently, Coats was one of those employees. He'd cashed in big by trading on his years as a senator. He joined one lobbying firm after leaving the Senate in 1999, and then cashed in again, joining King & Spalding after a stint in the Bush administration.

Now Coats wants Hoosier voters to forget that and send him back to Capitol Hill. His story is the revolving-door syndrome to the extreme.

Election Day is approaching fast and Coats is leading Brad Ellsworth, his Democratic opponent, in the polls. For Coats, it's a remarkable feat.

Somehow, he's gotten many voters to gloss over a resume that should disqualify anyone -- no matter how good a person or sharp a mind -- from serving in the Senate. He's asking voters to elect him to the world's so-called most deliberative body after spending years making gobs of money by lobbying his old pals in that same body.

The revolving door, through which lawmakers walk to become high-paid lobbyists, is a crushing problem. Firms with big bucks hire former lawmakers to peddle their client's causes. It is a spirit-breaker for citizens -- an abuse perpetrated by Democrats and Republicans equally.

But this case is particularly glaring. At a time when voters are railing against "politics as usual" in Washington, they're on the verge of electing a lawmaker-turned-lobbyist to the Senate. At a time when voters are complaining about the insider culture in D.C., they are considering electing a man that a King & Spalding news release once touted to clients as a leading member of its team of "Washington insiders."

This next point might sound disingenuous, but I can honestly tell you that I like Dan Coats. He's engaging, intelligent and a sharp politician. He is more thoughtful than many of the nation's other Senate candidates. But I can't get past the idea that he walked through that revolving door, selling his elected past to big-dollar clients eager to shape national policy.

You can't go home again. Or at least you shouldn't be able to. Not to the U.S. Senate. Not after you've cashed in as a lobbyist. But that's exactly what Coats is trying to do -- go home. 

Remember, after his career as a senator ended, Coats stayed in the D.C. area. That's where he voted and paid taxes. He returned to Indiana this year only to reclaim his old Senate seat. He's been back for so little time that he doesn't even own a Hoosier home.

Dan Coats isn't a bad man. He would be a solid voice in the Senate. But that doesn't matter. Because once a politician walks through the revolving door, it should lock behind him.