"Dodd faces steep road to reelection; Conn.'s senior senator trails 3 Republicans" by Brian C. Mooney, Globe Staff | April 17, 2009
HARTFORD - The election is still more than 18 months away, but US Senator Chris Dodd is barnstorming Connecticut this week like an incumbent in trouble. Voters who have supported him for 29 years are showing anger over his personal finances and for legislation that allowed federal bailout money to be used for executive bonuses.
The political perils for Dodd, who is being outpolled by each of three little-known Republicans, have grown so acute that President Obama weighed in yesterday with a strong endorsement and a pledge of personal support.
Obama told the Globe yesterday in a phone interview from Air Force One, as he flew to Mexico on a diplomatic trip:
"I can't say it any clearer: I will be helping Chris Dodd because he deserves the help. Chris is going through a rough patch. He just has an extraordinary record of accomplishment, and I think the people in Connecticut will come to recognize that. . . . He always has his constituencies at heart, and he's somebody I'm going to be relying on and working very closely with to shepherd through the types of regulatory reforms we need."
We know who his constituencies are.
Since he's been there 30 years, isn't he the reason we need regulatory reforms?
Where has he been?
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Dodd said last month that he had no idea that AIG bonuses would result from what he considered technical language he inserted at the request of the Obama administration, which feared litigation involving contractual obligations....
The LYING ISN'T HELPING, Chris: : AIG: Insults and Arrogance
Notice how contracts don't mean a palm poop when it comes to labor? Those agreements always gotta be ripped open and renegotiated.
Dodd has steadfastly maintained he received no special mortgage rates from Countrywide. But he waited 253 days (Republicans kept a running count) while the matter was under review by the Senate Ethics Committee before producing in February both his own records and those of Countrywide for inspection by the media. The ethics panel has not issued a finding.
FLASHBACK:
"Dodd set to refinance two loans under scrutiny
HARTFORD - Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, whose two mortgages with a troubled lender are under a Senate ethics investigation and whose committee has oversight over the mortgage and banking industries, said yesterday he will refinance the loans.
Dodd said he sought no special treatment from Countrywide Financial Corp., when he refinanced his Washington and East Haddam, Conn., homes in 2003. Dodd has acknowledged participating in a VIP program at Countrywide, which he thought referred to upgraded customer service, not reduced rates. "Knowing what I know now, I regret having ever done business with Countrywide," Dodd said.
The bank, a leading subprime lender at the center of the mortgage meltdown, was sold to
Dodd played a key role in crafting the $700 billion Wall Street rescue plan, which allows the government to spend billions of dollars to buy bad mortgage-related securities and other devalued assets from troubled financial institutions.
--more--"So that's what he was doing while you taxpayers were fleeced!
"Everyone's losing their homes, and he's got three of them on a senator's salary, and people want to know how he's managing to swing all these mortgages," said Christopher Healy, chairman of the Connecticut Republican Party. "After 30 years, there's a general fatigue about Dodd. You only beat people like this at the beginning or the end of his arc, and he's at the end."
As Congress broke for Easter this week, Dodd has been campaigning as though the election were next month, not next year, emphasizing his record in the Senate. He met with business groups, spoke at an environmental symposium, and met with machinists at jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney in East Hartford, vowing to fight Defense Secretary Robert Gates's plan to terminate service of the F-22 jet.
Yeah, thanks for sucking on that war-looting, taxpayer teat, Dodd.
Yesterday, Dodd chaired a field hearing in New Haven of his Senate committee on transportation issues, including commuter rail upgrades on a line linking New Haven, Hartford, and Springfield. A half-hour before the hearing, Obama, before departing for Mexico, unveiled a new report outlining plans to build a network of 10 high-speed rail corridors, including one in Connecticut....
Dodd, who has raised huge sums from the financial services industry he oversees as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, has stepped up his fund-raising. His campaign started this month with more than $1.3 million in the bank. By some estimates, he may need 10 times that to hold the seat....
Well, now we know why he does the things he does and how he keeps three homes.
On Tuesday, in the hall of Boilermakers Local 614, not far from the vast Electric Boat Co. in Groton, a group of about 50 shipyard union leaders rose twice to cheer the state's senior senator for his efforts over the years to save jobs at the facility that builds and repairs submarines for the Navy. Nancy Driscoll, a retired nurse and Democratic activist from Groton, attended and was ready to go to work. "We've got to start from the beginning and bring Chris back," she said. "In this environment, you can't help but be a little nervous."
What environment?
