Sen. Dodd's country house.
Honest! I thought EVERYBODY qualified for a no money down zero interest 50 year loan! My mistake!
Posted on 05/25/2009 11:43:14 AM PDT by Libloather
Rank-And-File Falling Away From Dodd
By Dick Ahles
Published on 5/24/2009
Senator Christopher Dodd's campaign to win back the hearts and minds and especially the votes of his Connecticut constituents in time for next year's election is being waged on many fronts.
He is working hard to be seen as the champion of the consumer and the bane of some of his most generous big-business supporters as he shepherds long overdue credit card industry legislation through the Congress.
He is becoming a frequent visitor to Connecticut.
And he has won the coveted endorsement of Sen. Joe Lieberman. Who could ask for anything more.
As we will see, not all of these efforts are necessarily working to the senator's advantage. His crusade against the loan sharks who dispense credit cards looks very good on the surface as we are treated almost daily to sound bites from the irate senator vowing to halt these dreadful abuses.
The question is, what took him so long? Usurious credit card interest rates aren't exactly a recent phenomenon. Nor is the practice of issuing cards to terrible risks, especially students with no credit and no income. Industry lobbyists, who were especially generous over the years to House and Senate overseers of their businesses like Sen. Dodd, successfully killed earlier attempts at reform.
Taking on the extremely unpopular credit card industry is a winner, but we will have to see how it stacks up against Dodd's sweetheart mortgage arrangement with Countrywide Financial, the circumstances surrounding the bargain-price purchase of his home in Ireland, his Senate votes that pleased his finance industry contributors and his wife's newfound prosperity as a $500,000 a year board member since their marriage.
An irate Dodd sounded almost as angry at The Hartford Courant as he is at the credit card moguls in a Mother's Day oped denouncing the paper for biased reporting not only in its news columns, but also on its opinion pages. Opinion pages are, by definition, biased, but attacking opinion that differs from yours as biased is a venerable tactic. It is often used by politicians who know that many people, despite the best efforts of the press, do not differentiate between news and opinion pages.
No big bucks for plain old Jackie Clegg
In his opinion piece, Dodd insisted he was a fair target, but attacking wife, with her impressive resume, is, well, biased. The Courant, however, went into a rapid response, using its main opinion venue, the Sunday editorial, to issue a same day rejoinder. The paper, which has endorsed Dodd in every previous election, pointed out, as Dodd didn't, that Jackie Clegg Dodd's income has increased fourfold since her marriage. It could have also wondered why this impressive resume - and it is impressive - didn't attract board recruiters when she was just plain Jackie Clegg.
Dodd's more frequent visits with the home folks have not been without the occasional glitch either. The visits are now so frequent and so staged, like a rally last week at the Machinist Union's Hartford headquarters to drum up support for the credit card bill, that they aren't getting as much coverage in the local press.
An exception was a visit to northwestern Connecticut that would have been more helpful to Dodd if it hadn't been covered. Dodd arrived in Cornwall an hour late and left 45 minutes early after taking only prescreened, written questions and, by a remarkable coincidence, not one of them dealt with the senator's ongoing controversies. Unfortunately, Dodd's appearance did attract the local press and its coverage of what the Lakeville Journal called “last week's rare sighting of Sen. Chris Dodd in the Northwest Corner” was devastating.
Then we have the mixed blessing of Joe Lieberman's endorsement. Lieberman owes a lot to Dodd. Thanks to his senior colleague, Lieberman may no longer be the most unpopular U.S. senator from Connecticut in Connecticut. And given Lieberman's many offenses, from his dogged support for the war in Iraq to his equally dogged support for the Republican candidate for president, Lieberman's unpopularity was not easy to eclipse. But Dodd seems to have done it.
In all of this, Dodd appears to have forgotten, or prefers not to acknowledge, that appearances mean so much in politics, especially the appearance of a conflict of interest. During his long Senate career, Dodd has happily and legally taken millions of dollars from the big businesses he and his banking committee are responsible for regulating. He insists and may even believe that their dollars have not influenced his votes, but no opponent, especially a Rob Simmons or one equally experienced, will ignore those appearances.
Unlike Lieberman, who ran and won reelection without the Democratic Party, Dodd seems to have retained the strong loyalty of the party and all the organizational support that goes with it. Even though he's been business' boy in the Senate, he also seems to have retained union support, or at least the support of union leaders.
It's the rank-and-file, also known as the voters, he's in danger of losing.
According to www.politico.com, “some national Democratic leaders hope embattled Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd will step aside for an ambassadorship or to head the Peace Corps.”
At least one very powerful Democrat is working to save Dodd’s re-election bid should he press on, which and so far Dodd’s given every indication he will. President Obama sent an e-mail to Connecticut Democrats last week hailing Dodd’s work in getting a credit card reform bill passed.
“Please join me in thanking Senator Dodd for his exceptional service,” Obama wrote, including a link to http://ct.barackobama.com/ThankDodd where your name, address and email address will be collected so Dodd, no doubt, can ask you for money later on and make sure you get to the polls.
If things continue to look as bad as they do now for Dodd, and he becomes ambassador to Jamaica or head of the Peace Corps or something, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is the presumptive 800-pound gorilla in terms of potential Democratic replacement candidates.
If not Blumenthal, possibilities include failed 2006 Senate candidate Ned Lamont and Democratic Congressmen John Larson, Chris Murphy and Rosa DeLauro.
Dodd has had his day. Obama will make him an offer he can’t refuse. Bye bye Chris, been bad to know ya.
If Dodd is not renominated, we will not win this seat. The Dems are smart that they usually take out their most vulnerable members before we have a chance to in a general (while we conversely often fail to remove our own damaged ones).
Bill Clinton ran for governor the first time as a “consumer advocate.” It’s a tired old liberal canard designed to fool the very stupid.
In propaganda technique, this article would be called “bait and switch.” It leads in with a Dodd is in trouble scenario, but then praises him and repeats his campaign themes.
You have been “Toricellied” Sen Dodd. Go quietly or else.
The worst punishment for these louts is they lose an election. Then they just live off their lobbyist friends and crooked money for the rest of their lives. We give them pensions too. Big ones.
Didn’t Chris Dodd MOVE HIS FAMILY to IOWA when he was ruuning for President???? Did he enroll his children in school there??
Yep.
Sen. Dodd's country house.
Honest! I thought EVERYBODY qualified for a no money down zero interest 50 year loan! My mistake!
Here’s to hoping that Dodd stays in the race and loses to Rob Simmons, who was the most conservative member of the Connecticut Congerssional delegation when he was in Congerss.
I think Obama will announce him as the next Ambassador to Tuvalu.
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