This NYT piece on former special ops and former CIA types running some sort of private intelligence gathering operation in Afghanistan is a good read. The fact that it ties in former CNN exec Eason Jordan is just a bonus.
Still no word from Dan Coats about why his lobbying disclosure statements that have him lobbying for TARP/Bailout money don’t mean he was lobbying to get his client TARP/Bailout money.
Coats is now railing against TARP and all federal bailouts. At the time, he was working for the private equity fund Cerberus Capital Management, owner of Chrysler, trying to get bailout money.
But his campaign insists he was actually “advocat[ing] for small businesses” on Cerberus’s dime.
Late Update: A bit more on what’s going on here. As noted in Eric Kleefeld’s piece from Friday, which I linked above, we’ve had several back and forths with the Coats’ campaign on this subject. So I wanted to review that just to have all the facts on the table. The lobbying disclosure form says that Coats lobbied TARP on behalf of Cerberus, which was then the owner of Chrysler, a prime target of bailout funds. However, Chrysler is not explicitly mentioned as the target of the lobbying. Coats’ campaign says that notwithstanding the language of the disclosure form, Coats’ was not lobbying for TARP funds or even for Cerberus for that matter but rather for provisions that would help small businesses. Now, what’s never been clear to us is what interest Cerberus (a very large private equity investor) would have in helping small businesses. We’ve posed this question to the Coats’ campaign and have been told that that is all the information they can provide. Any other questions, they say, should be taken to Cerberus. But they have not replied to our requests for comment.
With Mort Zuckerman, Harold Ford, Dan Senor and a bunch of other clowns all trying out for a spot or already having been voted off the island, at some point we’re going to need to just admit that the New York Senate race is actually a reality show. I’d actually been thinking this for a few weeks. And now I guess we have proof. The latest entrant — and he’s apparently going to announce on Tuesday, not just talk about it for a few months — is the father of American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi, Joe DioGuardi.
In fairness, it’s not quite as whacked as it probably sounds. DioGuardi actually served a couple terms in Congress back in the ’80s.
A few days ago I suggested that while it’s far too soon to point to any real trends, there are some signs in the poll data that things may be looking up a bit for the Democrats. Not that it’s not going to be a rough November for the Dems. But maybe not quite as bad as some think. To that end, here are a few more data points and possible trends I’ve been watching. Read More
Justice Thomas’s wife, Virginia, starts new ‘Tea Party’ lobbying group which will take corporate money under the new ‘Citizens United’ court decision.
Non-sexual hot tubber resigns as Majority Leader of Utah State of House of Reps.
It’s tricky going through the revolving door twice without getting hung up. Republican Dan Coats was the senator from Indiana then became a lobbyist and now wants to return to his old seat, succeeding Evan Bayh. On the campaign trail, Coats is railing against the bailout. But lobbyist disclosure forms show Coats was lobbying the Senate on behalf of Chrysler’s parent company for TARP benefits in late 2008. Eric Kleefeld reports.
Did Dobson get dumped from Focus on the Family because his son (who Dobson wanted to succeed him running the theocracy) is divorced?
In the spirit of Eric Massa’s non-sexual groping, top Utah legislator introduces non-sexual naked hot-tubbing.