Free Republic

Sen. Chris Dodd (D) returned home to Connecticut this afternoon following a historic vote this morning in the Senate that will reform health care. Dodd is facing a tough re-election bid and at least one man at Bradley International Airport let him know just how tough it will be."You're not gonna get re-elected," the man said. "Nice. Merry Christmas," Dodd responded.But is Dodd concerned that this vote will hurt his chances at winning in 2010?"Oh, I don't know, I find it somewhat amusing that people, every move you make has some sort of political calculation," he said.And he stands by...

Late in the negotiations for the Senate version of the health care reform bill, Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd worked to add a provision that could help the University of Connecticut partially fund the new hospital it has been seeking to replace the antiquated John Dempsey Hospital in Farmington. Dodd, chairman of the Banking Committee and a senior member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, is facing stiff competition for re-election in November. He introduced the amendment to the main bill, designed to increase the number of Americans covered by health insurance and enact other reforms, that...

Liberal reporter Ceci Connolly admitted to Greta Van Susteren tonight that Senator Dodd received a $100 million sweetheart deal from the White House in the Obamacare bill to help him with his re-election. It’s nice to know that our taxpayer dollars are helping to support this corruptocrat’s reelection, huh?

Senator Christopher Dodd, facing an uphill battle for his senate seat next year, received a little Christmas present from Harry Reid in the health care reform "manager's amendment:" a $100 million plum for a hospital. The AP reports that the $100 million will be used for "a health care facility that provides research, inpatient tertiary care, or outpatient clinical services." It must be affiliated with an academic health center at a public research university in the United States "that contains a State's sole public academic medical and dental school." Would it surprise you to learn that Connecticut has only one...

You can follow Richard Nixon's prescription on how to win a Republican nomination for high office. You can even heap praise on Jimmy Carter. You cannot, however, do both. Nixon, the disgraced 37th president, reduced his formula for victory to this: Run to the right to get nominated, then dash to the middle to get elected. Many Republican candidates find it still works. Former Congressman Rob Simmons, the front-runner in the 2010 contest for the U.S. Senate seat held by beleaguered Democratic incumbent Christopher Dodd, won three terms in the House of Representatives as a moderate Republican. Ambitious Republicans, even...

Politics: Sen. Mary Landrieu was the new "Louisiana Purchase." Sen. Ben Nelson got the federal government to pick up his state's future Medicaid tab. Maybe we should just put Senate votes up on eBay. Nelson, the 60th vote in the middle-of-the-night Senate party line vote on health care reform, will go down in American political history as the inventor of the permanent earmark. His seemingly principled stand against including federal funding for abortion evaporated like the morning dew as he decided to take what was behind door No. 1. The deal for Nelson includes special Medicaid funding for Nebraska, along...

Chris Dodd has has a pretty bad 18 months,With each day Senator Chris Dodd's hold on the Senate seat he has held for almost 30 years grows more tenuous. As the Chair of the Senate Banking committee he deserves a share of of the blame for the economic mess we are in now, on top of that, are the recent scandals in which he has been involved. ...At the same time all of these scandals have been happening, Chris Dodd has been the dutiful democrat, pushing through the Porkulus and a key player on healthcare. The problem is that Connecticut...

"It's unequivocally what I'm hearing, I'm hearing, that if Senator Dodd is the nominee, not only will we lose the Senate seat, it will be a drag on the ticket"-Democrat businessman who is challenging Chris Dodd (Video)

Biden: Dodd is 'getting the living hell beat out of him' Posted: December 11th, 2009 05:17 PM ET From CNN Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser Washington (CNN) – Joe Biden praised Sen. Chris Dodd Friday, but conceded his good friend - one of the Senate's most vulnerable Democrats - is "getting the living hell beat of him." The vice president made his comments at a fundraiser for Dodd Friday in Hartford, Connecticut. Dodd had been scheduled to accompany Biden at the fundraiser and at event earlier in the day to announce nearly $4 million in federal stimulus funding to replace...

Seventy-one percent (71%) of voters nationwide say they’re at least somewhat angry about the current policies of the federal government. That figure includes 46% who are Very Angry. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 27% are not angry about the government's policies, including 10% who are Not at All Angry........ The data suggests that the level of anger is growing. The 71% who are angry at federal government policies today is up five percentage points since September. Even more stunning, the 46% who are Very Angry is up 10 percentage points from September.

The 2010 election is still almost a year away, and as they say, a lot could happen. But if the Stupid Party doesn't mess up the "Dump Dodd" movement, Connecticut will have a new U.S. senator come January 2011. But even in defeat, corrupt Democrat Christopher Dodd would be a big winner because he voted many times to make it so. Besides a career's worth of dirty wealth he has amassed — the Irish cottage, the real-estate equity enhanced by sweetheart mortgages, the money he saved touring the globe in special-interest and taxpayer-funded junkets and God know what else —...

The fastest way to destroy U.S. capital markets is to give Congress more control of the U.S. financial system. And yet Sen. Dodd is proposing to create a new agency in charge of supervising banks and bank-holding companies, led by a White House appointee. The leader of that agency and no doubt a number of other management people would likely be political appointees and would change as the White House occupant changed and the political winds in Congress shifted. It is the worst possible solution. Dodd's proposal is a method for Congress and the administration to gain more control of...

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. -- The state Green Party is hoping to enlist a new candidate to run against Sen. Chris Dodd in 2010. Friday, the party urged Winsted-native Ralph Nader, the 76-year-old frequent presidential candidate, to jump into the race. Nader has experience running in national elections, having run for president three times. Nader was in West Hartford on Friday for a book signing. At the same time, supporters are urging him to get into what they called one of the hottest political races in the country. “If enough people, hundreds and hundreds of people urge Ralph Nader to run,...

At Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Oct. 29th press conference, a CNS News reporter asked, “Madam Speaker, where specifically does the Constitution grant Congress the authority to enact an individual health insurance mandate?” Speaker Pelosi responded, “Are you serious? Are you serious?” The reporter said, “Yes, yes, I am.” Not responding further, Ms. Pelosi shook her head and took a question from another reporter. Later on, Ms. Pelosi’s press spokesman Nadeam Elshami told CNSNews.com about its question regarding constitutional authority mandating that individual Americans buy health insurance. “You can put this on the record. That is not a serious question. That is...

Enabling terror: This month, corrupt Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd helped block a congressional amendment, supported by nearly 150 relatives of the victims of 9/11, that would have prevented the prosecution of Islamic terrorists in the U.S. court system. Days later, the Obama administration announced it would try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other terrorist suspects in a civilian court in New York City. Granting the accused the U.S. constitutional rights they despise and raising the possibility of acquittal on legal technicalities are bad enough. But the trial poses a severe threat to public safety by making the courthouse and federal...

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) says Tuesday’s Republican victories in Virginia and New Jersey should be a “wake-up call” for Democrats in Congress. Here are 10 likely to be hearing alarm bells. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) No one noticed the election results more than Reid’s advisers, who know he faces a situation similar to that which befell New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine. Like Corzine, Reid is an unpopular incumbent running in a state whose economy is in the tank. And like Corzine, he’ll have to use his massive war chest to create a negative impression of his opponent...

U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd on Countrywide financial loan: "I feel the matter's behind us. We ought to Move on.''

House Democrats Lock GOP Out of Committee Room A bitter divide over Countrywide mortgage scandal. By JAMES FREEMAN Democratic staff for the House oversight committee informed their GOP counterparts today that the majority has changed the locks on the committee's hearing room. While Republicans previously enjoyed their own key to the room, they will now have to request access from Democrats. This followed a bitter partisan argument in which Republicans refused to take down a video from their website that contradicted Dem explanations about a closed-door meeting on the Countrywide VIP loan scandal. As we reported last week, the committee...

When he was a presidential candidate, Barack Obama promised to make negotiations over healthcare reform an open and transparent process. Now that he's president, the reality is that most of the high-stakes work is being conducted by just three senators behind closed doors. According to the Washington Post, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sens. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Max Baucus, D-Mont., gather in Reid's office to hammer out a merger of competing bills before a Senate vote. The only other people allowed in the room are key aides and Obama's representatives on healthcare reform. More than a year...

 Free-market Peter Schiff, who runs Euro Pacific Capital. He is now a potential Republican challenger to Sen. Chris Dodd in 2010.“I'm interrupting my career. It's not like I want my new career in politics. But I'm willing to interrupt it the same way that somebody interrupted their career and joined World War II and went off to fight the Nazis. I don't think that I'm that heroic, and I don't think I'm risking as much as a soldier. But it's the same principle,” Schiff said  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkBRmty7fKc 

The latest Quinnipiac Poll is out and it’s more bad news for Sen. Chris Dodd. Despite a public relations blitz that had him returning to Connecticut for what seems like the first time in years, and a statewide email and choreographed “shout out” from President Obama in the Rose Garden, (Rob Simmons) is still leading Dodd 45%-39%.

Homeland Security: Provisions of the law that spared New York another 9/11 are set to expire Dec. 31. So why do Democrats want to gut this law and remove the immunity telecom companies have for helping protect America? To borrow a British expression from World War II, it was a very near thing. The capture, arrest and indictment of 24-year-old Afghan immigrant Najubullah Zazi before he could set off bombs made from store-bought chemicals prevented a tragedy of potentially devastating proportions. It wouldn't have happened if the critics of Patriot Act had their way. The capture of Zazi was made...

From Ken Vogel's report on the filmmaker's wide-ranging press conference today: Moore also called out Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), who supports the public option, but whose role in financial regulation as chairman of the Senate banking committee comes in for criticism in “Capitalism.” Speaking to Public Citizen, Moore said, “we’re going to lose this seat unless we run another Democrat” and said he’d “already received a phone call from a well known Democrat to tell me to back off Sen. Dodd.”

Has it really come to this? Is MSNBC so in the tank for the Democratic Party that it takes far-left documentary filmmaker Michael Moore to bring up malfeasance by a leading Democrat? Moore appeared on MSNBC's Sept. 29 "Hardball" to promote his new film "Capitalism: A Love Story." With exception of "The Ed Show" fill-in host Lawrence O'Donnell noting the Senate Ethics Committee had cleared Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., of wrongdoing and only reprimanded him verbally, over the last couple of months, MSNBC's prime time shows have ignored a deal Dodd got on a mortgage with Countrywide. That is, until...

Senate Democrat Leader Harry Reid's imminent demise notwithstanding, perhaps the most scrumptious victory Republicans have a more than good chance of having will be the defeat of Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut, a man whose fifteen minutes are finally up.

I wholeheartedly endorse Peter Schiff for Senate. To understand why, in spite of previous differences between us, please consider the following compelling case, starting with a look at government bailouts, the moral hazards of too big to fail, the current rise in the stock markets, and the "great government advance" of corporate welfare and bailouts at taxpayer expense. Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor, Professor at Berkeley, discusses government intrusion in Why the Dow is Hitting 10,000 While Everyone Else is Cutting Back. So how can the Dow be flirting with 10,000 when consumers, who make up 70 percent of...

Tired of the government bailing out banks? Get ready for this: officials may soon ask banks to bail out the government. Senior regulators say they are seriously considering a plan to have the nation’s healthy banks lend billions of dollars to rescue the insurance fund that protects bank depositors. That would enable the fund, which is rapidly running out of money because of a wave of bank failures, to continue to rescue the sickest banks. The plan, strongly supported by bankers and their lobbyists, would be a major reversal of fortune. A hallmark of the financial crisis has been the...

The Yankee Republican became an endangered species in Washington, D.C., last fall with the defeat of U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, the lone survivor of the breed in Connecticut's congressional delegation. Although the state still had a popular Republican governor, the party's national aspirations seemed to have taken flight for more hospitable territory. A scant 10 months later, the GOP in Connecticut is back with what promises to be a raucous and costly fight to unseat a politically vulnerable U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd. The party, which hasn't mounted a credible challenge to the Democratic incumbent in years, now has a field...

The Subprime home mortgage collapse...a Primer. It's ALL about the CRA of 1977 Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977 - This required banks to offer credit throughout their entire market area for “underserved” populations and small businesses. The CRA gave incentives to help low income borrowers become “home owners”. Liberals call this group “low income borrowers”. Conservatives call them a RISK!The CRA was passed by the Carter administration. In 1995 the Clinton administration authorized subprime loans under the CRA. Democrats added these provisions for the securitization of subprime loans and then ENFORCED the lending to high risk individuals. By 2000,...

RUSH: Let me go back to the Washington Post, because on Monday the 7th, the Washington Post published an article that very few people talked about and was little noticed, about changes in the mortgage market since Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were taken over a year ago. According to the Washington Post -- this is a quote -- "Only one lender of consequence remains [in the mortgage market]: the federal government..." The mortgage industry has been nationalized. "[N]early 90 percent of all new home loans are funded or guaranteed by [YOU!] taxpayers... The government has the power to decide...

Senate Smackdown: McMahon Running Against Dodd Chief executive officer of World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. says she's seeking the Republican nomination to run against Dodd. AP Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Extreme, fringe, and tea-baggers … this is what your Senator thinks of all of you. And the very fact that he has had to resort to using fowl sexual language to describe his constituents gives you a good indication of the state of his campaign. Chris Dodd won’t improve his chances of re-election with talk like this. In one easy to read statement, Dodd’s campaign manager called hard working constituents Extreme, fringe, and tea-baggers. High School!

Whatever faults the Republican Party has had, the basic problem has been that many Republican politicians forgot what they were supposed to stand for once they gained office. The program of the Democratic Party, however, is entirely based on lies and deceptions. Most of the time they are afraid to let voters know what they really stand for. Right now they are trying hard to pass a "public option" disguised as something else so voters won't realize what they are doing. It is against this backdrop that concerned Americans not forget the origins of the housing and financial crisis that...

2010 Preview: The Hottest Races in the Senate for DemocratsHolly Bailey Election Day 2010 is still more than a year away—423 days to be exact. But it’s never too early to begin looking at what will be the hottest races to watch. Over the next two days, your Gagglers will look at a handful of must-watch Senate races, a list that will no doubt evolve over the next year as the battle for Congress begins. **SNIP** California: Is Barbara Boxer seriously in trouble? One of the more outspoken liberal members of the Senate, Boxer seemed like a shoo-in for a...

Perpetual bear Peter Schiff contemplates a move into politics. Peter Schiff is offended. “Nobody has ever contacted me from any of the congressmen to say, ‘Hey, you saw this financial collapse coming, you nailed it exactly,’” he says, adding impatiently, “I pretty much got it exact.” If nobody from Washington wants to call him, Schiff figures, he will call Washington. “I don’t seem to be able to make a difference as a private citizen. No one there seems to care what I say,” he complains. He plans to make them care by challenging Sen. Chris Dodd in 2010. “People say...

Senator Edward 'Ted' Kennedy stood for sleaze. Bloated and drunken, he used his standing in the Kennedy clan to chase vulnerable women - which brought his dream of reaching the White House to a shameful end. He was the youngest of the four Kennedy brothers, and by far the longest lived. Incredibly, he was in line to inherit his brother John F. Kennedy's legendary presidency, but his chances were dashed following the drowning of the pretty, young campaign assistant Mary Jo Kopechne. Forever known as the Chappaquiddick Incident after the Massachusetts island where it took place, the scandal in 1969...

Link to Article Here:To satisfy everyone's curiosity, we offer the following, compiled from various sources: In 1985, Dodd and fellow Senator Ted Kennedy were out (with dates) for a night on the town at La Brasserie. Much liquor was consumed--that will come as a shock to those of us familiar with Ted Kennedy--and the two Senators were at one point unaccompanied by their dates. The Senators made a "Waitress Sandwich" out of some poor, unsuspecting waitress. If you're not entirely sure what that means, let's just say you wouldn't want to be the waitress. Article clip, from the Hartford Courant:"Dodd...

OAK BLUFFS, Mass., Aug 24 (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd promised on Monday a 'thorough and comprehensive' hearing on the renomination of Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Ben Bernanke.

GOSH, what a surprise: A committee of their fellow senators has decided that Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad did nothing unethical when they took out loans from Countrywide Financial on the kind of favorable terms not available to mere mortals without their financial or political standing -- or a personal connection to the head of Countrywide. The very Select Committee on Ethics did recognize that the whole deal looked bad, and gave its colleagues a gentle pat on the wrist for creating "the appearance that you were receiving preferential treatment based on your status as a senator." But in the...

As the old Irish toast goes, may your sins be judged by the Senate ethics committee. Actually that's not an Irish toast but it must be the fervent hope of every politician who received a "Friend of Angelo" loan from former Countrywide Financial CEO Angelo Mozilo. Late last week the six Senators on the ethics panel dismissed complaints against Senators Kent Conrad and Chris Dodd with a mere admonishment about the appearance of impropriety. The three Republican and three Democratic Senators say they conducted an exhaustive probe and inspected 18,000 pages of documents. They say they found "no substantial credible...

Democratic Party senators, Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad were "caught" receiving Sub-Prime "VIP" Loans from lender Countrywide Inc. The Loans were at favorable interest rates. Despite the fact that the lender has testified that both men knew that they were getting a sweetheart deal, Senator Dodd claims he didn't know he was getting favorable rates. This revelation came from Robert Feinberg, the official who handled their loans in testimony to congress. According to the Washington Post:Dodd got two Countrywide mortgages in 2003, refinancing his home in Connecticut and another residence in Washington. Conrad's two Countrywide mortgages in 2004 were for...

Gosh, what a surprise: A committee of their fellow senators has decided that Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad did nothing unethical when they took out loans from Countrywide Financial on the kind of favorable terms not available to us mere mortals without their financial or political standing -- or a personal connection to the head of Countrywide. The very Select Committee on Ethics did recognize that the whole deal looked bad, and gave its colleagues a gentle pat on the wrist for creating "the appearance that you were receiving preferential treatment based on your status as a senator." But in...

In the political surprise of the summer, Chris Dodd—cleared in the Countrywide scandal and fresh from cancer surgery—is on the verge of saving his career. An exclusive interview with Lloyd Grove. Ailing Connecticut senator Chris Dodd, who underwent successful prostate surgery Tuesday at New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, appears to be on the mend politically as well. In what might be the political surprise of the summer, Dodd is on the verge of saving his career. “I think so—we’re getting them back,” the 65-year-old Dodd told The Daily Beast in an exclusive interview the night before he went under...

Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd underwent surgery for prostate cancer on Tuesday and was recuperating at a New York hospital. Dr. Peter Scardino of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center said the surgery was successful and Dodd was resting comfortably. "It is anticipated that he will be able to return to full activity within a few weeks," Scardino said in a statement released by Dodd's office. Dodd, 65, is expected to remain at the hospital for a few days before returning home to Connecticut. The five-term Democrat announced last month that he had been diagnosed with an early, treatable stage of cancer. He...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid may now be the most endangered incumbent Seantor running in the 2010 cycle. In a state where Barack Obama won by 12%, Reid has only 34% support for re-election, and trails a possible GOP challenger by 6%. Connecticut Senator and Countrywide Financial favorite son Chris Dodd, also trails his likely GOP challenger, former Congressman Rob Simmons, by a similar high single digit margin.

The donors who poured millions into Ron Paul's presidential campaign coffers aren't done yet. On Saturday, libertarian financier and commentator Peter Schiff raised more than $200,000 in a 24-hour "money bomb" as he continues to explore a bid for the Republican nomination to run against Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.). Having now collected more than $790,000 in campaign contributions since mid-July, the Ron Paul Republican Schiff is competitive financially with the frontrunners for the GOP nomination. Former Congressman Rob Simmons raised $754,000 through June 30 while former ambassador Tom Foley has taken in $528,000 since mid-June. Schiff's fundraising haul wasn't the...

... Americans in vast numbers are abandoning cable news networks because of stunts like this. Throughout the interview the host badgers and belittles Schiff who is barely able to open his mouth before the host interrupts him again.

Politics: Democrats say Rush Limbaugh is running the Republican Party. Better Rush than George Soros, who is running the Democrats. At least Rush believes in freedom, capitalism and letting you keep what you earn.The cover of the March 7 issue of Newsweek shows a picture of conservative icon Limbaugh with a piece of tape covering his mouth and the word "Enough!" So much for disagreeing with what you say but defending to the death your right to say it. Voltaire could never be a contributor to Newsweek. But David Frum is, and his inside cover story, "Why Rush Is Wrong,"...

Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd received a better mortgage deal from subprime lender Countrywide, simply because Dodd was a United States Senator. Today, the United States Senate cleared Dodd of wrongdoing. According to CNBC: In the end, it takes a lot for the country's most elite club to turn on one of its own. Senators Christopher Dodd and Kent Conrad have been cleared of any ethics violations for accepting sweetheart, "Friends of Angelo" mortgages from Countrywide. The Senate's deciding to clear Dodd comes just a couple of days after the SEC gave a sweet heart deal to Bank of America -...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Two key Democrat senators were cleared by the Senate Ethics Committee on Friday from year-long investigations about whether mortgages they obtained from Countrywide Financial Corp. violated the senate's rules on gifts. The bipartisan committee, which supported the decision unanimously, did scold the senior lawmakers, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., for not being more careful in their dealings. "While the committee finds no substantial credible evidence as required by committee rules that your Countrywide mortgage violated Senate ethics rules, the committee does believe that you should have exercised...