Some 30 years ago, Coleman was a rock group roadie for the band Ten Years After, setting up the stage and steadying the bass amplifier during concerts for the 1960s musicians.

Today, Coleman is a roadie of a different sort. The freshman senator, one of only three Jewish Republican members of Congress, is traveling around the country appealing to Jewish groups to support President George W. Bush and hoping to reverse a nearly century-long trend of Jewish support for Democrats.

The Democrat-turned-Republican talks up Bush's efforts to combat terrorism and the president's support for Israel, but Coleman also focuses on his own personal transformation, a Brooklyn-born Jew who switched parties, in hopes of swaying Jewish voters.

"Compassionate conservatism is a Jewish ethic," the senator tells his audiences.

Coleman has made nine appearances before Jewish groups in states such as Florida and California since taking office in January, the kind of activity - and destinations - that would put Coleman in position for any political leap in 2008 if Bush is re-elected.

Coleman, who makes another appearance later this month, says he hasn't coordinated his schedule with the White House, but expects to when the campaign gets into full swing.

The 53-year-old senator, who jokes that before he went to college - "I never met either a Republican or a Lutheran" - gives his testimonial with the passion of a convert.

"I became a Republican to make come to life the ideals I had as a Democrat," Coleman told a gathering of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Washington last month. "I believe in equality and social justice. The key to justice and equality is for mom and dad to have a job." [...]