Posted on 05/08/2009 7:32:41 PM PDT by Libloather
GOP Has Eyes Fixed on Dodd
By: Scott Benjamin 05/08/2009
State Republican Party Chairman Chris Healy said during an appearance in New Milford this week that U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd (D-East Haddam) is in more political trouble in his 2010 re-election race than U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Stamford) was in 2006 when he lost the Democratic primary and had to win a fourth term running as an independent.
"It relates to his personal conduct and issues of ethics," he said of Mr. Dodd, who has had to respond in recent months to charges that he and his wife, Jackie, received favoritism on the refinancing of a mortgage and that the senator allowed loopholes in legislation that provided bonuses for executives of AIG, which had received federal assistance.
"None of it is true," Mr. Dodd said in an interview in Torrington last month regarding the negative coverage that he has received recently.
"With Lieberman, it was about policies, it was about the war," Mr. Healy said in an interview Monday night before speaking at an event at the John Pettibone School that was sponsored by the New Milford Republican Town Committee.
"I think Lieberman was a lot closer to the grassroots than people gave him credit for, so it sustained him in the long run," he said of the senator, who lost the Democratic primary in 2006 to Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont but then captured the general election as an independent candidate.
Mr. Lieberman supported Republican presidential candidate John McCain in last year's presidential election, even though he still caucuses with the Senate Democrats. "Dodd has been absent without leave," Mr. Healy said of the five-term senator, making an apparent reference to his moving his family to Iowa in late 2007 when he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination and his work as the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.
"People blame Barney Frank and me, but we only became chairmen 24 months ago," Mr. Dodd said last month, making reference to the role that he and Mr. Frank (D-Mass.), the chairman of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, have had in the instability in the nation's financial sector.
Former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons (R-Stonington), state Sen. Sam Caliguri (R-Waterbury) and former U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Tom Foley of Greenwich are considering a run for the U.S. Senate seat.
A recent Quinnipiac University poll indicated that all three would defeat Mr. Dodd, who has served longer in the upper body than anyone from Connecticut, if the election were held today.
Mr. Healy said he would prefer that the nomination be determined next year without holding a primary in August but indicated that a primary could benefit Republicans by "motivating" their supporters.
On another topic, the party chairman said he disagrees with charges that Gov. M. Jodi Rell (R-Brookfield) has lacked leadership.
Critics have said that, although she has the highest poll ratings of any statewide official in Connecticut, Mrs. Rell has failed to enact proposals to eliminate the car tax and increase the income tax to pay for more early childhood education programs.
Additionally, they have said that she announced in her budget message in February that she wanted to restructure the scope of state operations yet recently agreed to a tentative concession package with the state bargaining units that would avoid any layoffs in the immediate future.
"We have to elect more Republican legislators to give her more bargaining power against the Democrats and the public employee unions that control the Democratic Party," Mr. Healy said, in an apparent reference to the Democratic majorities of 24 to 12 in the state Senate and 112 to 39 in the state House.
"Democratic legislators are all about increasing the size of government through higher taxes," he added. Mr. Healy said he disagrees with critics who have called Mrs. Rell an absentee governor.
The Hartford Courant in 2007 and The Fairfield County Weekly in 2008 published stories that indicated that Mrs. Rell maintains a very limited work schedule.
The Fairfield County Weekly reported that after reviewing four and a half months of public records related to Mrs. Rell's schedule it discovered that there were "Loads of drive-time radio chats, bill-signing ceremonies and public events. Not so many meetings with her commissioners, senior staff or serious journalists."
State Rep. Robert Godfrey (D-Danbury), a longtime friend of Mrs. Rell's, said in an interview in January that "it is no secret that Lisa Moody is running the government," a reference to Mrs. Rell's veteran chief of staff.
"I think all of that is an irrelevant point," Mr. Healy said.
"She works hard," he said of the governor, who took office in July 2004. "We don't hire her to do the detail work. We hire her for leadership and vision. She does that.
"If that was the case, it would be reflective in her poll numbers," he said regarding charges that Mrs. Rell has been an absentee governor.
Nationally, Mr. Healy said he believes the Republican Party, which had controlled the White House 28 of the previous 40 years before last November's election, has learned some lessons from its defeat last year and in the 2006 midterm congressional elections.
"If you go to Washington and do the opposite of what people asked for, the voters are going to throw you out," he said.
Mr. Healy said that Democratic President Barack Obama's expensive platform has "galvanized" the party because of the massive debt it will create for future generations.
"Everyone is concerned about their children and grandchildren paying back this debt," New Milford Republican Town Committee Chairman Pat Sherry said in an interview.
"In the last 100 days we have borrowed as much as Ronald Reagan did in his whole eight years in office," said Justin Bernier of Plainville, who is seeking the Republican nomination in next year's race in the 5th Congressional District.
Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson has stated that even when the debt is projected to decrease in 2016 it would be 3.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). He has written that Democrats criticized Mr. Reagan for leaving office with deficits that were 3.1 percent of GDP.
Mr. Healy said that the recent Tea Party protests were an indication of opposition to Mr. Obama's spending policies.
On another topic, Mrs. Sherry said that she is "sure" that New Milford Republican Mayor Patricia Murphy will run for a fourth term this year and added that the party is formulating a municipal ticket for the caucus, which will be held in July.
That's why we need an investigation.
I hope that Rob Simmons throws Dodd out in a landslide. While I disagree with some votes Simmons has cast, I like his life record (Vietnam vet, ex-CIA Agent).
There will be a rally against Dodd Saturday 5/17 in front of his Hartford office.
Correction: The date is Saturday 5/16.
The party has all but died on her watch. When she started out as Lt Governor, the GOP still had a majority in the State Senate.
All incumbents are in deep political doo doo according to the chants at the Sacramento Tea Party that I attended. Everyone I know and everywhere I go, the same issue is being discussed by angry Americans: “vote them all out.” The Elitist political royalty in both parties are despised by voters in both parties. The MSM may attempt to hide that fact, but the tidal wave is rolling and gaining speed. We need a strong leader now.
Amen and amen, I say unto you.
18 states have provisions providing for the recall of their Senator. I bet, in and among that DC mess...we can find enough factoids to pull out nine of them....at least
http://www.ehow.com/how_2096900_recall-us-senator.html
Actions will always speak louder than words! I want to REALLY SEE all of these leftist SOB’s actually voted out of office!
Dump Dodd, May 16 at noon until 2:00
Location 30 Lewis Street, Hartford CT Dodd Headquarters.
Let’s go get him!
Dodd has been feathering his nest for a long time. He is apparently a first class crook. He would fit right in with the current administration.
"None of it is true," Mr. Dodd said in an interview in Torrington last month regarding the negative coverage that he has received recently.
One thing you need to give old Chris Dodd credit for!! He can lie with the best of them.
All the 'Rats and the RINOS who refuse to step up and stop the march to socialism. "Vote them all out" is a bit too sweeping at this point. The "conservative" Republicans in Congress still have a chance to show some spunk and fire.
Dodd and Frank ran Fannie and Freddie into the GROUND...
All the while getting sweet heart deals on his mortgages.
Dodd is a p.o.s. that deserves to be flushed down the toilet bowl of history..
Alcoholism runs in the family. Dodd senior was censured for misuse of campaign funds and gave us the Gun Control Act of 1968 which was taken directly from gun registration laws enacted and enforced by the Nazis in Germany.
They’re too busy searching for their gonads with both hands and a mirror to do anything towards fighting the march to Socialism loud enough to form a movement.
Frank on the otherhand "IS" a toilet.. Pelosi and Reid are the drain field..
Both use the Constitution as toilet paper..
I’m still hoping Peter Schiff gets in. Haven’t heard anything lately.
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