But Coats also has a reputation for compromise and reform.
Although opposed to allowing homosexuals to serve in the military, he helped craft a policy prohibiting the military from asking a recruit's sexual orientation. He has criticized fellow Republicans' opposition to additional rounds of military base closings, which the Pentagon dearly wants to free money for weapons and training.
And on the Senate Armed Services Committee he kept pressure on the Air Force regarding the spiraling costs of its new F-22 fighter.
Moreover, while he supported legislation calling for the deployment of the controversial national missile defense system "as soon as technologically possible," he also expressed reservations about its effectiveness and called for a "more rigorous" test and development plan for the troubled program.
"George W. Bush's expected selection of Dan Coats is a safe pick with some promise," said Council for a Livable World President John Isaacs. "Coats has endorsed the conservative position on defense issues.
"However, when he has disagreed, he has done it vocally and forcefully."
Indeed, Coats has been one of the most vociferous critics of Clinton. He suggested Clinton launched cruise missile strikes on sites in Sudan and Afghanistan in August 1998 – retaliation against terrorist financier Osama bin Ladin for the twin bombings of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya – as a means of distracting the nation from his affair with Monica Lewinsky. Clinton had just days before the strikes admitted he had a sexual relationship with the White House intern.
Coats accused Clinton of "lies and deceit and manipulations and deceptions," and said the president's record "raises into doubt everything he does and everything he says, and maybe even everything he doesn't do and doesn't say," the New York Times reported at the time.
"I think we fear that we may have a president that is desperately seeking to hold onto his job in the face of a firestorm of criticism and calls for him to step down," Coats said.
Coats was largely alone in his attacks; even then Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich said the suggestions of a diversion were "sick."
"I don't think people should think about that at all," Gingrich said. "This is real."
Coats also called for Clinton's resignation over the Lewinsky scandal, saying he was "offended that our president, the commander in chief, lacks the courage and the integrity to hold himself to the same standards of conduct that we demand of our men and women in uniform. The honorable course of action would be to resign."
Bush's inclination toward Coats may have less to do with his personal conservatism than it does with Coats' reluctance to commit troops to so-called peacekeeping operations.
This tracks Bush's concerns about the "overdeployment" of the military. Bush's top security aide, Condoleezza Rice, has floated the idea of pulling out of the Balkans.
In 1994 Coats tried to warn the Pentagon off committing ground troops to Bosnia.
"This is a quagmire," he said on CNN's "Crossfire." "I think we are forgetting the lessons of Somalia."
In 1995, Coats co-sponsored a Senate resolution opposing sending U.S. troops to Bosnia to enforce the peace accord worked out in Dayton, Ohio.
"The Congress opposes President Clinton's decision to deploy United States military ground forces into the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina to implement the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina and its associated annexes," stated the resolution. However, the resolution also declared support for any troops that may be deployed.
In 1998, Coats took Defense Secretary William Cohen to task for "nation building" in Bosnia, despite Clinton's initial assurances that the mission would last only a year. But Coats also refused to set troop limits and timetables for a pullout, expressing concerns that such micromanagement would only hamstring the military in the performance of its duties.
This evenhandedness was characteristic of Coats' military work in the Senate. He could be depended on to support the Republican agenda – national missile defense, boosting defense spending, opposing homosexuals in the military – but showed a strong independent streak, one he will need to be heard at a Cabinet table that will include Dick Cheney, a former defense secretary, and Colin Powell, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Coats also has had some surprises up his sleeve.
With Powell and Georgia Democrat Sen. Sam Nunn, Coats in 1994 helped create a policy regarding homosexuals in the military, despite his convictions that homosexuals should not be allowed to serve.
Clinton wanted to lift the ban on homosexuals serving in the armed forces, a proposal deeply opposed by the Joint Chiefs. Coats helped work out the compromise "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which prohibits the military from asking recruits their sexual orientation. Service members are similarly banned from declaring their orientation – doing so compels expulsion. "Don't ask, don't tell" was recently expanded to prohibit harassment of suspected homosexuals.
Homosexual activists say they hope Coats will fully enforce the rule if he is tapped for the job. They also point out that Coats initially opposed lifting the ban.
A devout Christian with a moral opposition to homosexuality – according to Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, he refused to sign a pledge promising not to discriminate based on sexual orientation in his own office – Coats has never expressed a desire to overturn "don't ask, don't tell."
"We are trying not to prejudge the nomination. We are more than willing to work with Sen. Coats, but we would feel more comfortable if President-elect Bush and he would make clear they will follow the law," said Dixon Osburn, co-executive director of SLDN.
Coats' moral code has also dictated his opposition to allowing abortions to be performed in Defense Department hospitals, even if female service members are willing to pay for the abortions. Because Congress does not allow the "operation," servicewomen wishing to have unwanted babies aborted go to private abortuaries.
"We must not take money from citizens and use it to vandalize their moral values," Coats said during a Senate debate on the topic.
It is a nettlesome issue with military hospitals overseas, where service members do not always have access to high-quality outside health care. They may have to take vacation time to return to the United States for abortions.
The Pentagon has asked Congress annually under Clinton to lift the ban on abortions. Those requests have been unsuccessful, and the policy would be unlikely to be repealed under Coats.
Coats is a lobbyist with the Washington firm Verner, Liipfert Bernhard, McPherson & Hand, which he joined in 1999 after 17 years on Capitol Hill.
Coats served seven years in the House of Representatives and 10 in the Senate. Coats was then-Rep. Dan Quayle's district director before winning election to the House when Quayle moved to the Senate. He then took Quayle's place in the Senate after President George Bush won the White House in 1988.
Verner, Liipfert counts major military contractors among its lobbying clients, including Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Aerospace Corp. and British Aerospace.
When he joined the firm, he said he would be representing defense interests.
"Coats' practice will focus on legislative, international, and corporate matters, including defense, telecommunications, health care, and non-profit organizations," stated Verner in January 1999.
According to a 1999 disclosure form filed with the government, however, Coats is not officially connected to the accounts.
Nevertheless, if Coats moves to the Pentagon, he could face conflict-of-interest issues. He told the National Journal in February that he and Verner colleague Bob Dole were working with an Idaho construction and engineering company to compete for reconstruction contracts in Bosnia and Kosovo.
"We're helping to position them to be a key player in a consortium that will be bidding for reconstruction work in the Balkans," Coats said.
Coats "is helping Morrison Knudsen navigate federal agencies," the National Journal reported. "He may also deal with the United Nations and NATO on the company's behalf."
Neither Coats nor a spokesman for Verner could be reached to say whether Coats had established those contacts. If so, his becoming secretary of defense could influence those organizations toward his former client.
Coats is a 1965 graduate of Wheaton College and holds a J.D. from Indiana University School of Law, where he served as Associate Editor of the Law Review. He served in the U.S. Army from 1966 to 1968.
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